NEWS


If you read, watch or listen to any media outlet at all these days, it seems everyone is


talking about artificial intelligence. Every industry conference and seminar would simply fail to deliver if AI were not prominently featured in presentations and panel sessions. Experts and industry leaders, often speaking


Steve Dunne CHIEF EXECUTIVE, DIGITAL DRUMS


AI will reshape society, so we must prepare for a new consumer


in excited – almost evangelical – tones, tell us how AI will radically improve efficiencies and increase corporate profitability. They promise it will slash operational costs, improve margins and maximise the bottom line. It all sounds incredibly lucrative. Yet, beneath the corporate optimism, most


experts also quietly acknowledge a starker reality: it will fundamentally change jobs, upend careers and destroy traditional livelihoods. The captains of industry tell us this is a good


thing. They argue people will suddenly have vastly more time to spend on leisure. Working times, traditionally averaging 40 hours over a five-day week, will supposedly shorten dramatically to just a couple of days a week – if that. On paper, it looks idyllic.


white-collar roles what robotics and automation did to manufacturing jobs in the 1990s and early 2000s. One particularly sobering report suggested that in the years to come, only 20% of the population will be in traditional, full-time employment. There will be fewer entry points into business


for young people because AI will have removed the need for human labour at those foundational levels.


It points to a bright, utopian future, especially for the travel industry. After all, we love to imagine a time-rich society with nothing to do but see the world. But here is my point. Right now, everyone in


“Is anyone in travel looking outwards at what the future consumer will look like in an


7LPH ULFK FDVK SRRU Fair enough, you might think. More leisure time for all surely points to a boom in travel and experiential spend for a massive, time-rich population. But if we think this through to its logical conclusion, the argument falls apart. While the future population will undoubtedly be time-rich, that will not automatically translate into a population that is financially well-off. We live in a consumer-spending economy. Simply put, people who work earn money, and they spend that disposable income on consumables, holidays and flights. Working people also pay taxes. Conversely, if people


AI-dominated world?”


travel is focused internally. We are looking solely at what AI can do to streamline our own companies, reduce our immediate overheads and make our current operations more efficient. But is anyone in travel looking outwards at what the future consumer will actually look like in an AI-dominated world? If not, we need to start doing so immediately.


%LJƐHU SLFWXUH The question we must urgently ask is this: what macroeconomic impact will AI have on travel consumers? Could there be a systemic problem on the horizon that poses an existential challenge to our industry? I believe there is, and it demands the travel sector starts thinking in a truly revolutionary way – starting right now. According to tech commentators, economic influencers and recent market reports, AI will do to


12 28 MAY 2026


are not working, they are not earning. If they do not have jobs, they are not contributing to the tax base. And crucially, if people have little or no income, they have zero disposable


funds to spend on discretionary luxuries like travel. Furthermore, if the majority of the consuming public is no longer paying income tax, governments will have dwindling resources to plough back into public infrastructure and society. For every travel marketer and industry leader,


that is a bleak outlook: a global consumer base that has all the time in the world, but no money to spend. We should, of course, carry on being excited


about AI and how it can make our businesses smarter. But running in parallel to those internal efficiency projects, we must start looking outwards. We need to actively prepare for, and design


products for, a fundamentally different type of society – and a very different type of consumer.


Read more columns by Steve Dunne: travelweekly.co.uk/comment


travelweekly.co.uk


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