Checking In to the AI Era

Abstract

The hospitality industry is entering a period of irreversible structural change. After a decade of margin compression — compounded by COVID-19 and an uneven recovery — operators can no longer rely on cyclical improvement to restore profitability. AI is the first technology inflection point in modern hospitality capable of addressing volatile demand, rising labour costs, and aggressive OTA intermediation simultaneously and at scale — not as a supplementary optimisation layer, but as a structural reimagining of how hospitality businesses generate revenue, manage cost, and deliver guest experience.