Recently, a colleague told me their executive team had been reassuring staff that AI wouldn’t replace them. I nodded, because that’s never been the argument. AI doesn’t replace people. It replaces the work that gets in the way of people being extraordinary. The scheduling. The routing. The manual data entry. The repetitive questions that pull your best staff away from guests.

When technology handles the logistics, your team gets back what matters most: time, presence, and the ability to create unforgettable moments. That’s not a threat to hospitality. That’s hospitality in its purest form. The brands that win won’t be the ones that deploy AI fastest. They’ll be the ones that deploy it with intention, aligning it to their values and freeing their people to do what no algorithm ever could: connect.