As summer travel heats up, Adobe’s latest data shows people aren’t just leveraging large language models (LLMs) for passive vacation browsing. These tools are taking on the heavy lifting: researching destinations and amenities, planning excursions and itineraries, hunting deals and promotions, and ultimately booking dream summer getaways.
But there’s now a notable shift: AI traffic to travel sites isn’t just growing; it’s outperforming traditional non-AI sources across nearly every key metric. These AI-influenced travelers are arriving on site with stronger intent and higher interest, leading to longer sessions, deeper engagement, and lower abandonment rates.
At the same time, the readability of travel sites—that is how easily a hotel or airline’s digital footprint is digestible by machines and surfaced in AI searches—continues to be an urgent priority. Adobe’s latest data offers deeper insight into which travel sectors are leading this shift in the search frontier, and the content strategies and structural advantages keeping them top-of-query for travelers.
Adobe’s insights are based on direct transactions online, covering more than 8 million visits to U.S. travel sites, more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, and more than 100 million SKUs—more than any other technology company or research organization. A companion survey in March 2026 of more than 5,000 U.S. respondents provides additional context on how consumers are leveraging AI in their online shopping journeys.
AI travel traffic nearly triples in May 2026.
Traffic from AI sources to U.S. travel sites grew 194% year-over-year (YoY) in May 2026 and is up +2,215% since October 2024 when Adobe began tracking AI traffic data—marking a record high.
AI-driven travel traffic still converted 28% less than non-AI sources, but the gap has narrowed significantly—now nearly 70% smaller than in October 2024. In fact, survey data reinforces this momentum: 86% of travelers reported an improved experience when planning through an AI assistant, from research and recommendations to budgeting and even packing support.
Once on site, AI-referred travelers are 21% more engaged than non-AI sources, spend record time on the website (70% longer per visit, up from 61% in March) and exhibit significantly lower bounce rates (-41%). These trends indicate more purposeful, high-intent user behavior and AI’s increasing impact on converting that intent into actual bookings.
Adobe is releasing new data today that profiles the U.S. travel sector overall, looking at
pages across travel websites and creating a benchmark on AI visibility. The AI Content Visibility Checker, a diagnostic tool Adobe unveiled last year, analyzes any web page, identifies what LLMs can or cannot read, and assigns a score out of 100%. So, if a webpage receives a score of 50%, this means half of its content is not readable by machines.
Hotels and car rentals lead the travel sector in both homepage (63%; 59%) and product page (73%; 71%) readability behind rich, structured content around property and vehicle descriptions, amenities and features, and core offerings. However, more than a third of these pages remain unreadable by AI, signaling significant work is still needed to optimize digital footprints, even for industry leaders. Other key insights include:
Hotels lead in most experienced-focused content
- Destination/guide: Hotels (78%)
- Activities: Hotels (73%)
- Blog/news: Cruises (87%)
- Buying guides: Car rental, cruises (79%)
Hotels also lead in search results and most loyalty, customer support content
- Search results: Hotels (73%)
- Customer service: Hotels (73%)
- Promotions/deals: Hotels (71%)
- Loyalty: Hotels, car rentals, cruises (69%)
- FAQ: Car rentals (72%)
Airlines trail leading sectors across every page type
AI retail traffic continues holiday and first-quarter tailwinds.
Traffic from AI sources to U.S. retail sites also continued to grow significantly in May 2026 (+138 YoY) and has surged +1,324% since October 2024—another record high. Even without a seasonal lift, AI-driven retail traffic reached a new peak in May, surpassing every month in 2025 and signaling a sustained change in how consumers discover and engage with brands.
AI traffic converted 54% better than non-AI sources, a sharp reversal from a year ago when conversion rates were nearly half as high. This is reflected in survey data: 80% of consumers who use AI for shopping say they use it more than they used to, and 79% feel more confident in purchases made with AI’s help.
Once on site, AI-referred shoppers are 15% more engaged, the strongest advantage recorded since tracking began in October 2024. These shoppers also spend more time on the website (53% longer per visit), browse more pages (23% more pages per visit, nearly double March levels), and are significantly less likely to leave immediately (-36% bounce rate, a record low).
Most notably, AI visits are now worth 53% more, another record high (up from 37% in March). This marks a remarkable turnaround from just 12 months prior, when non-AI visits were worth 128% more—underscoring that AI-driven traffic now commands a substantial premium.
Across retail sub-categories, cosmetics (63%) and electronics (56%) lead in overall readability driven by dense, AI-friendly content such as ingredient lists, tutorials, product specs, how-to guides, and customer service pages. In contrast, grocery (48%) and furniture & home (47%) lag behind, facing structural challenges in page design that suppress AI citation. Sporting goods and apparel (51%) both cluster in the middle. Other key insights include:
Cosmetics leads in content and category pages
- Blog/news: Cosmetics (78%)
- Category/departments: Cosmetics (71%)
Apparel wins at front-door touchpoints, cosmetics in customer support
- Homepage: Apparel (62%)
- Customer service/help: Cosmetics (60%)
Grocery lead in product pages
- Product Detail Pages: Grocery (70%)
Overall, Adobe’s latest data shows that AI traffic to U.S. travel and retail sites continues to grow, both in volume and value. And while these sites have a solid foundation when it comes to AI visibility, led by sub-industries like cosmetics, electronics, hotels, and car rentals, meaningful content gaps remain. Even top-performing sectors have high-value pages where 30 to 40% of content is still overlooked or uncaptured by AI.
As consumer adoption of AI tools accelerates, brands must ensure their digital presence is not only engaging for humans, but fully accessible to machines as well.
View the full Quarterly AI Traffic Report here.
Vivek is the director of Adobe Digital Insights who has worked with some of the largest CPG & Technology organizations, in the world, to drive key digital marketing & data science initiatives. As the Director for Adobe Digital Insights (ADI), he launched & spearheads the popular Adobe DEI (Digital Economy Index) & Holiday Retail reports, as well as other industry reports that profile emerging technology, creativity, and travel trends.
