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Optimising AI literacy in F&B operations starts with a simple principle: buying technology is not the same as building capability.Too many operators still approach AI as a procurement exercise rather than an operational transformation discipline.

AI investments in F&B deliver value only when adoption is treated as seriously as the technology. The implementation gap is rarely caused by weak tools. It is usually caused by weak translation between strategy, tech implementation and frontline execution.

AI literacy in F&B does not start with tools. It starts with understanding what the operation actually produces.Most teams I see try to adopt AI before they can even describe what their workflow does step by step – mostly for the lack of SOP.

The idea that “search is dead” is mostly an exaggeration. What is really happening is a change in how people find information online, not the disappearance of search itself. For hoteliers, this difference is important because people are still searching for hotels, but the way they search and where the traffic goes is starting to change.

Traditional search isn't dying — it's disaggregating. The front-end experience is shifting dramatically, but the underlying data infrastructure remains largely the same. When ChatGPT or Perplexity answers a hotel query, it's still drawing from indexed web content, reviews, and structured data that lives in the same ecosystem traditional SEO has always served.

The world is changing, and the rate of change is exponential. Here is an example: I entered my vacation requirements for next January into ChatGPT. In about 20 seconds, I received accommodation recommendations, with options, sorted in price within my price range.

In a word, no. Websites were designed to entice humans to view, discover, consider, buy. They are heavy with images, HTML, JavaScript, etc. to entice us in and encourage us to dwell. APIs were invented for M2M, machine to machine, transactions.

Agents will be everywhere, but behind the scenes. Booking agents are a short-term solution; using AI to simulate human behavior is like asking for a faster horse. Agents that behave as people, visiting websites and simulating human behavior (clicking on links, filling forms) are an incredible technological feat, but are a poor solution to most real-word problems: - Agents are very slow, because they have to replicate user paths built for humans- They fail often, because every website they visit is differentThe future will be MCP- and API-based, with agents interacting with those MCP/API.

Crystal ball time. 5 to 10 years i think we will quite similar to where we are today. the slow pace of change will not change and traditional tech stacks will still be around. lack of motivation to change, contracts and low investment will hinder the change.