Technology

The most transformative disruption we’ll bring to the hospitality industry by 2026 lies in end-to-end workflow automation across hotel operations, not just individual tasks, but entire processes that currently require too much manual effort with too many handoffs and that may unnecessarily create security risks in today's high data security environment.

We believe AI will most profoundly disrupt operational scheduling and resource allocation across spa, wellness, and leisure departments. These areas are traditionally managed through manual guesswork, disconnected systems, or static templates.

I believe the biggest disruption isn’t a single task - it’s the entire commercial workflow behind meetings and group bookings. A third of all hotel room nights tie back to a meeting or group, yet hotels still burn thousands of hours on manual qualification, data gathering, and proposal-building.

It's abundantly clear that the US hyperscalers are unable and unwilling to regulate themselves. A $100 million pro-AI super PAC formed in August, backed by OpenAI's president, has identified its first pro-legislation target to oust.

The divergence in AI regulation is less about "innovation versus control" and more about who will define the operating system of the future economy. The US optimises for velocity and scale; the EU for rights, accountability, and systemic risk.

Yes, the gap in AI innovation and adoption will continue and expand. This disparity is less about well-intentioned policy and more about an ongoing geopolitical battlefield where technology sits squarely in the 'armed forces' of the major powers.