PayPal Teams With Sabre and Mindtrip on Agentic AI Travel

PayPal is launching an artificial intelligence-focused partnership with tech firms Sabre and Mindtrip, according to a Thursday (Feb. 12) press release.

The collaboration combines PayPal’s agentic commerce capabilities, Sabre’s enterprise-grade travel technology and agentic AI expertise, and Mindtrip’s agentic consumer platform, the release said.

The goal is to replace the “fragmented multistep booking processes” with a “single, intelligent experience that moves seamlessly from inspiration to action,” according to the release. The product is due to launch in the second quarter of this year.

Gary Wiseman, chief product and technology officer at Sabre, said in the release that the companies are trying to help the travel sector respond to a shift in consumer behavior toward conversational commerce, adding that agentic AI in travel can only reach its full potential with the help of enterprise-grade technology.

“This partnership brings together a cutting-edge agentic consumer startup, the world’s biggest digital payments platform, and Sabre’s leading enterprise-grade agentic AI technology to accelerate the future of travel in a way that is practical, scalable and grounded in real use cases,” he said in the release.

The new offering will let travelers avoid moving between apps, tabs and browsers and instead interact with an AI-powered travel assistant on Mindtrip’s platform, per the release. From there, they can describe their trip plans, get personalized flight and hotel options, and complete bookings and make payments.

Sabre’s platform powers real-time shopping, pricing, availability, booking and servicing, while PayPal’s digital wallet enables identity verification, “along with providing a streamlined, personalized and trusted checkout experience,” the release said.

Travelers are growing more accustomed to working with AI agents, according to PYMNTS Intelligence data. About 25% of consumers said they would be comfortable allowing an AI agent to plan their trips.

As the comfort level rises, travel platforms are responding by deploying agents that plan itineraries, execute bookings and manage trips across suppliers in real time. As a result, travel commerce is shifting away from search-led workflows toward agent-led execution.”

Meanwhile, consumers are turning to agentic AI for more than travel. Users are now increasingly relying on platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT for shopping and personal finance.

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