Now that the very last of the turkey sandwiches, pies, soup, and fritters have finally been digested, my thoughts are turning to what lies ahead in 2026. I’ve no idea who’ll win the World Cup, or what fashionable colours we’ll be wearing this year, but there are four tech and travel trends that Wylie’s Almanac predicts for the next 12 months. 

AI will be the real deal …

I know I bang on about AI but I can’t stress enough just how big a revolution we are going through, exactly like the internet 30 years ago. There’s a lot of talk that the AI bubble could burst, sending stocks plummeting and shock waves across the global economy. Given how some big AI players are financed, that could prove true in 2026.

But although that could lead to some projects being abandoned and perfectly good start-ups going bust, the game-changing potential of AI itself is real, so the revolution won’t stop. Instead, we’ll see more focus on deploying AI where there genuinely is a practical use-case, not just so businesses can say they have it.

… but we’ll need the right blend with human service

I can understand cynicism about AI because there’s been a lot of over-promising and under-delivering. Agentic AI is the latest example, with wonderful pictures being painted of tools that look at your diary and then sort out your whole trip for you. Perhaps we will see some of that if you fly to Frankfurt once a fortnight. But many trips have their own specific requirements and nuances, and need human interaction both from the traveller and their service provider. There are still too many variables to let the machines handle everything unsupervised.

If you’re nerdy, look out for advanced machine intelligence

Generative AI, like ChatGPT or Copilot, is based on large language models that hoover up masses of data. AI “godfather” Yann LeCun has switched to what he calls advanced machine intelligence, which trains computers through visual learning to understand the physical world and think more like humans do.  

Travel managers will expect more from data

With all the political and economic uncertainty out there, companies are really tightening up on costs, which puts more pressure on travel managers to deliver savings. That’s driving a requirement for better data to identify where those savings opportunities might be. Once again, AI can help massively. We will see it transition from answering questions to spotting where tweaks are needed to a travel programme and then making those adjustments itself. 

Sounds great, but here comes the “but”. Like humans, AI can only take data-driven decisions if the data is good. If it isn’t, you’ll see false conclusions leading to misguided actions. Therefore, a key task for travel managers in 2026 will be to demand much more accurate and complete intelligence. Nevertheless, strap in because it’s going to a rocketing year ahead!!