What We Heard at HITEC 2025

Excerpt from PhocusWire

While there were many buzzwords at HITEC 2025 in Indianapolis last month, artificial intelligence (AI) was one that couldn’t be ignored.

Hospitality technology companies were quick to discuss the ways they’re integrating AI into their products and platforms, but when it comes to the willingness of hotels to adopt and invest in emerging AI capabilities, there was less to be said.

“Obviously, that’s high on everyone’s mind right now—and the thing is that everyone talks about AI, but very few people understand what’s behind it or what the value is,” said Klaus Kohlmayr, chief evangelist and head of strategy for IDeaS.

“Now, the question is how do you use that to make your operations more efficient? How do you become more productive? How do you change your user experience to be more conversational and more interactive? Those are all the things people are waiting for and asking for.”

And while hoteliers are also dealing with fragmentation in their tech stacks, AI is a separate thorn in their side.

Why are hotels hesitant?

According to Josh Graham, Cloudbeds’ head of market development for North America hotels, hoteliers are wary of “hype cycles”—citing past concerns about minting non-fungible tokens and central reservation systems being rebuilt on the blockchain.

“There really is that opportunity, but hotels are rightfully skeptical of it,” Graham said of AI. Last week, Cloudbeds also published a report, “The Signals Behind Hotel AI Recommendation,” which looked at how hotels show up on large language models. It also provided some practical steps hotels can take to boost their presence on AI platforms.

Natalie Kimball, Shiji’s vice president of strategic accounts for the Americas and Europe, the Middle East and Africa, reiterated that hoteliers aren’t as eager to invest in AI due to a general lack of understanding.

“Customers need realistic expectations, so AI is only going to get them to a certain point, and I honestly believe we’ve kind of gotten to the point—because what else are you going to generate? You can’t fabricate a pool—either you have one, or you don’t,” she said.

According to Scott Wilson, president of Sabre Hospitality, in general, hoteliers are a bit slower to adopt technologies when compared with consolidated industries. However, he stressed the need to provide AI tools to encourage adoption.

“They don’t necessarily have to understand what to do with AI, we just want to give them the tools so that they can leverage what AI can do for them, and that’s going to be the way that we’re going to get more AI adoption into the marketplace,” Wilson said, citing the recent expansion of its SynXis Concierge.AI tool.

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