15-07-2025
What AI and Tech Disruption Means for Travel Jobs
The travel industry is once again standing at the edge of a major technological transformation. Just as the rise of online booking platforms redefined travel agencies in the early 2000s, the advent of AI, particularly agentic and generative AI, may soon redraw the talent landscape across the travel sector.
To get a better understanding of how the latest developments in AI are affecting employment in the travel industry particular, Skift Research undertook an analysis of government employment data to see what we could learn from past technological disruptions, and what upcoming shifts we can anticipate in the near future.
Travel's Tech Gap and the Catch-Up Potential
Despite travel's rapid digitalization over the past two decades, the sector remains surprisingly light on tech talent. Computer-related roles, such as software engineers and web developers, comprise only 0.25% of travel jobs in the U.S., according to Bur
