AI isn’t a tech upgrade, it’s a business transformation.

Everyone says they’re “doing AI.” or are building an “AI-Led business”.

Six months in. Do I say it? Yes, because someone has to. Hospitality, travel, wellness, entertainment, mobility need to wake up.

What I see across hotels, spas, lifestyle apps, and travel sellers is this:
You’ve outsourced your AI thinking.
To your CRM.
To your PMS
To your distribution partners.
To your marketing agencies.
And now they’re selling you their version of AI, not yours.

Instead of asking:
“What problems are we solving? What value are we creating?”
We hear:
“What AI features can our vendors offer?”

The result?
Fragmented tools with no clear purpose
Expensive integrations that don’t scale
Data that still doesn’t talk to each other
“AI capabilities” that nobody uses. Teams already showing signs of AI fatigue

Most organisations do NOT have:
- an AI capabilities and readiness audit
- a clear strategy and risk assessment and mitigation plan
- a prioritised roadmap
- an architecture that makes sense
- a change management framework
- a business case tied to CX optimisation, revenue or efficiency

The risk? You buy what’s available, you implement what’s sold.
Meanwhile, your people are undertrained, overwhelmed, scared and increasingly Resistant.

AI is not a tech upgrade. It’s a business transformation and right now, most of the industry is trying to plug AI into broken processes, legacy systems, and unclear strategies.

What should be happening instead? Before buying anything:
- Audit your reality
- Define your priorities
- Align your architecture
- Build your roadmap with a real ROI model attached especially around CX
- Invest in AI literacy and change management
In that order.

If your AI strategy is defined by your PMS, Aggregators and retailing platforms or your CRM…You don’t have an AI strategy, you have a vendor roadmap.