Anthropic’s push for agentic AI, paired with rising personalization expectations and new review signals like Vrbo’s photo uploads, is reshaping travel operations and loyalty programs — a shift the Global Loyalty Organisation says will redefine how brands deliver recognition and value at scale.

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GLO

The travel industry is entering a new phase of “agentic” AI — systems that not only answer questions but take actions across software — and the implications touch everything from luxury hospitality to vacation-rental reviews. At the Skift Global Forum East, Anthropic’s Head of Americas, Kate Jensen, said the travel sector stands to gain significantly by building its own AI agents, calling out a “huge opportunity … to become far more personalized.”

Anthropic’s pitch to travel: build your own agents

Jensen’s message was clear: travel companies shouldn’t rely only on generic AI tools. Instead, they should build agents tailored to their systems and guests. She highlighted two key components:

• Claude Skills. These act as modular instruction sets or capabilities that organizations can load on demand. Hotels, for example, could create Skills that recognize recurring guest preferences — such as requests for extra pillows, hypoallergenic amenities, or particular room orientations — and automatically route them to the right operations teams.

• A browser-capable agent system. Anthropic is also developing a browser-based agent that can operate inside both legacy and modern software. This is particularly valuable in travel, where property-management systems, CRMs, and vendor portals often coexist in a fragmented stack. An agent that can navigate between them without custom integrations lowers complexity dramatically.

Together, these components point to a future in which AI doesn’t simply provide answers but completes tasks across a company’s real operational environment.

Why this resonates now

The top 1% of hospitality has effectively become its own universe, offering ultra-personalized service that travelers increasingly expect across the broader market. Traditional automation can’t scale that level of individualization — but agentic AI can.

At the same time, tech companies are racing to make the browser itself more agentic, enabling automated workflows inside everyday web apps. For travel operators who rely heavily on browser-based systems, this shift makes advanced automation more accessible than ever.

Practical use cases for hotels, airlines, and travel brands

Here’s how agentic AI could reshape operations:

• Proactive personalization. Agents could scan guest messages, loyalty data, and past-stay histories, then automatically assign preferred rooms, arrange amenities, or flag special requests before arrival.

• Operational copilots. Agents could reconcile rate plans between a hotel’s central reservation system and online travel agencies, check for pricing inconsistencies, and prepare changes for human approval.

• Service recovery. When a guest reports an issue, the agent could pull up the reservation, apply compensation rules, and propose make-good options to staff instantly.

• Complex trip planning. Agent chains can help travelers plan multi-city itineraries across airlines, hotels, and activities while incorporating loyalty benefits, company travel policies, and personal preferences.

Vrbo adds a new trust signal: guest photos in reviews

Vrbo is introducing the ability for guests to attach photos to their property reviews — a small but powerful addition that increases transparency. Photos provide travelers with more accurate expectations and give hosts clearer, visual feedback.

For property managers, this raises the stakes on housekeeping and maintenance. For AI systems, it creates a richer data source. In the near future, AI agents could analyze photo reviews, flag defects like broken fixtures or cleanliness issues, and route those items into maintenance software automatically.

Global Loyalty Organisation Take: The Loyalty Layer Will Decide Who Wins

The Global Loyalty Organisation (GLO) sees these developments through a loyalty-first lens — and believes agentic AI will reshape how brands earn, interpret, and act on member value.

1. Personalization becomes the new points currency.
GLO argues that loyalty programs are shifting from transactional (earn-and-burn) mechanics toward emotional loyalty built on recognition and relevance. Agentic AI accelerates this by enabling brands to proactively anticipate needs — the kind of recognition members value more than points.

2. AI agents can unify loyalty data that’s currently siloed.
Travel brands often hold rich loyalty insights that sit isolated in CRM, booking engines, operations platforms, and customer service logs. According to GLO, agentic AI provides the connective tissue to surface these insights in real time. The result: on-property staff and frontline digital systems finally get a unified view of the guest.

3. Elite experiences can be scaled responsibly.
The top 1% of hospitality has long differentiated itself by remembering preferences, orchestrating seamless stays, and offering personalized touches. GLO sees AI agents as a way to democratize aspects of those elite experiences — while still allowing brands to layer exclusive benefits on top for premium tiers.

4. Loyalty teams must now think like product teams.
GLO notes that loyalty leaders increasingly manage ecosystems, not just programs. AI agents introduce new design questions: What should the loyalty agent recognize? What actions should it take? Which touches should remain human? These decisions become part of the loyalty “product.”

5. Trust remains the foundation.
GLO cautions that personalization must feel welcome, not invasive. Transparency, opt-ins, and clear value exchange will determine whether AI-driven loyalty deepens relationships or erodes them.

The travel industry’s biggest opportunity isn’t just more automation — it’s personalization at scale. Anthropic’s agent-first approach gives hotels, airlines, and travel brands new tools to elevate guest experience while simplifying complex operations. Vrbo’s new review photos add visibility and richer signals. And from the Global Loyalty Organisation’s standpoint, this moment represents a turning point: loyalty programs that embrace agentic AI will set the new standard for recognition, relevance, and long-term guest value.

Source: GLO