As the hospitality industry accelerates into an era defined by intelligent innovation, few forces loom larger than artificial intelligence (AI). Once a distant concept, AI has rapidly become an everyday catalyst reshaping how hotels engage guests, optimize operations, and drive commercial success. With adoption moving from experimentation to strategic integration, the industry enters a pivotal moment, one that will take centre stage at next week’s HSMAI Middle East & Africa Commercial Strategy Conference (CSC MEA).
Taking place on 25-26 November at Conrad Dubai, the 8th Annual CSC MEA brings together the region’s senior leaders across sales, marketing, revenue management, and distribution.
This year’s programme features an exceptional speaker line-up and a wide range of formats, from plenary debates and lightning rounds to leadership hubs and interactive forums. AI will be a key theme, shaping conversations around personalization, commercial strategy, and loyalty.
In the lead-up to the event, we asked five industry leaders how AI is reshaping hospitality in real time. Their insights reveal a new era of hyper-personalization, conversational search, operational intelligence, and loyalty transformation, powered not to replace people, but to elevate them. With inputs from: Sam Weston, Head of AI & Marketing, 80 DAYS; Michael Marchand, Regional Director Sales, EMEA, Canary Technologies; Paul Rantilla, Senior Vice President, CRO – Hospitality Upgrades, Plusgrade; Anurag Jain, Executive Vice President –APMEA, RateGain, and Evgenii Pavlov, General Manager, Yango Ads MEA.
How can AI drive and scale personalization without losing the human touch?
Leaders across the industry agree that AI’s value lies in enhancing, not replacing, human connection. The technology’s strength is its ability to recognize patterns, understand guest intent, and automate routine requests, freeing teams to focus on meaningful interactions.
As 80 DAYS’ Sam Weston notes, “AI can help hotels understand guests a little better, spotting patterns and preferences that, ironically, make personalization feel more natural and human.” He believes the real opportunity is to use that insight to enhance human connection, not replace
it. This sentiment is echoed across the sector. Canary Technologies’ Michael March and highlights AI’s role in operational efficiency: “AI allows hotels to personalize every interaction at scale.” By automating routine requests, hotel teams gain time back to focus on what matters most: “delivering genuine, personal service.”
Plusgrade’s Paul Rantilla underscores the same advantage: “AI helps hotels understand what each guest values most. It’s not replacing hospitality, it’s helping staff focus where it matters.”
RateGain reinforces how AI connects the guest journey end-to-end: “By automating the what and when of communication, AI empowers hospitality professionals to focus on the why, making every interaction personal and memorable,” comments Anurag Jain. And for Yango Ads’ Evgenii Pavlov, the aim is to eliminate friction: “The goal isn’t to replace human service but to remove digital friction so that personalization feels effortless and genuinely human.”
Together, they highlight a shared belief: AI is clearing space for hospitality’s most human strengths.
How is AI-first search changing how guests plan and book hotels?
AI-first search is shifting guest behaviour from keyword queries to conversational discovery, a change with profound implications for hotel visibility.
Marchand observes this rising expectation, “Half of travellers now use AI to plan trips… To be discoverable in these searches, hotels need clear, structured website content supported by AI chat.” Weston echoes this: “It’s not just about being listed anymore, it’s about being understood and ultimately recommended. Preference-driven trip planning is becoming the norm, Rantilla explains, “Guests now get suggestions that actually match what they want. Soon, AI won’t just suggest rooms. It’ll help curate the whole stay.”
RateGain sees a shift in the flow from discovery to booking: “This marks the beginning of search becoming dialogue, where discovery, comparison, and booking happen seamlessly in one personalized, intelligent exchange.” And Yango Ads points to an even more autonomous future:
“Agentic AI will anticipate traveller needs, integrate with calendars/transfers, and deliver seamless end-to-end trip management.” The future of search is conversational, contextual and increasingly predictive, and hotels must adapt or risk invisibility.
What must commercial teams do to make AI a true partner?
Successful AI adoption is an organisational transformation, not just a tech upgrade. Leaders emphasise curiosity, clarity, and cross-functional alignment. Weston advises teams to stay open-minded and to start small and stay curious, “the clearer the inputs, the more useful the outcomes.” Canary Technologies stresses human advocacy: “The most important step is building internal champions. The combination of trust plus enablement is what turns AI into a true partner.”
Plusgrade highlights the importance of ourcomes-driven adoption: “AI works best when it’s tied to real outcomes — more bookings, better offers, higher spend.” RateGain echoes the need for alignment: “When teams see AI turning insights into results, trust builds naturally and adoption follows.” The message is consistent, meaningful AI adoption starts with people, purpose and shared goals.
How will loyalty programs evolve in an AI-driven world?
Loyalty is shifting from transactional to experiential, driven by intent, relevance and real-time personalization. With AI influencing how travelers choose hotels, Weston highlights that brand loyalty could become more challenging by depending less on recognition and more on clarity, on how well your brand is understood and trusted by the technology itself. RateGain sees loyalty built on anticipation: “Future loyalty will reward relevance instead of repetition.” Yango Ads expands this further: “Programs must also cater to both human guests and the AI agents increasingly influencing bookings.” Together, these insights reveal The future of loyalty is dynamic, highly personalized and grounded in meaningful value.
How can AI increase direct bookings and ancillary revenue while improving efficiency?
Across the board, leaders see AI as a catalyst for revenue optimization and commercial performance. 80 DAYS highlights the evolution of discovery, stating that generative AI tools is already surfacing hotels as part of curated shortlists, creating new avenues for direct visibility.
Canary Technologies emphasizes up-sell automation, while Plusgrade focuses on predictive intelligence, noting that AI spots patterns humans can’t. The result: higher revenue, smoother operations, and guests who keep coming back.
RateGain demonstrates the full end-to-end impact: “AI connects marketing, pricing and distribution data… helping hotels drive higher direct bookings, boost ancillary revenue and improve efficiency.” Yango Ads reinforces that AI can unify commercial workflows into “efficiency with empathy.”
As the industry gathers at CSC MEA 2025, one message resonates clearly: AI is not an add-on – it is a transformational force guiding the next era of hospitality. From personalization and search to loyalty and revenue, AI is reshaping how hotels compete and connect. And as these leaders highlight, its true power lies not in replacing the human touch, but in amplifying it.
