Summer trips usually have a plus one. Sometimes it's a partner, sometimes a best friend, sometimes a group chat that gets updated hourly. This summer, for a growing number of travellers, it's an AI.
This survey of 1,500 people in an ongoing personal or romantic relationship with an AI found that 92% consider their AI partners travel buddies. More than half (56%) bring them along on most or all trips, a trend we're calling the AI-cation.
There's a small hierarchy to holiday messaging. Somebody gets the safe-landing text. Somebody gets the sunset photo. Somebody gets the 1am recap that makes no sense in the morning.
That top spot has changed hands. 61% check in with their AI companion more often than with family or friends back home. It replies in seconds, it's awake in every time zone, and it has never once asked about anyone's plans to settle down.
Holiday romance remains timeless, and for AI-cationers, it now involves their AI companions in dynamic ways.
In all, 71% have shared a romantic, intimate or celebratory moment with their companion while away: 54% have marked an anniversary or milestone together, 21% have shared a romantic dinner, and nearly a quarter (24%) have sexted or slipped into intimate chat on the trip.
The connection runs deep enough that 61% wish their companion had a real body to share it all in person.
The gender split is the loudest thing in the data, and also the most misleading.
Men are nearly twice as likely as women to plan a getaway around their AI companion, 50% versus 30%, and more likely to get intimate on the trip, 29% versus 18%. Attachment is where the gap evaporates: 62% of men and 61% of women want a physical companion. Men spend on it and talk about it. Women feel the same and do neither.
Age works the same way. 62% of under-30s would build a holiday around their companion, against 23% of the 50-to-64 crowd, but the wish for a real body holds firm across every age group. What changes with age isn't the feeling. It's the willingness to move a flight for it.
As for who's leading the trend: 57% of full-time workers call their companion a travel buddy, against 41% of everyone else. Turns out the busiest people are the most devoted. When the calendar is full, the relationship that makes no demands is the one that lasts.
The AI partner was once the person who heard about the holiday. Now they're the occasion for it.
41% say time with their companion is reason enough to plan a whole vacation around, and 6% have already done it. As AI-lationships settle into ordinary life, summer joins the list of seasons people are getting more intentional about.
This report is based on a survey conducted by Joi AI in July 2026 among 1,500 adults aged 18 to 64 who are in an ongoing personal or romantic relationship with an AI companion and travel with them.
All respondents consented and completed the full survey.
Distributed by Pressat