Hotels Don't Have an AI Problem. They Have an Adoption Problem.

HiJiffy, the AI-powered Guest Communications Platform for hotels, launched today From Imposed to Owned: The Guide to Hotel AI That Sticks, a white paper arguing that the industry's growing scepticism around AI isn't a rejection of the technology itself, but of how it is being sold, implemented and managed.

When HiJiffy surveyed hoteliers for its 2025 white paper, 86% said AI automation had already helped them save time on routine, repetitive work. What has changed, HiJiffy argues, is their patience for hype. After years of vendor pitches, product launches and conference keynotes, the question is no longer whether hotels should use AI, but whether the AI they already have delivers that value consistently, across the whole team.

"We don't need to convince hotels that AI belongs in the hotel tech ecosystem anymore," said Tiago Araújo, CEO and Co-founder of HiJiffy. "That debate is over. The challenge now is making the AI they've already bought earn its place. Too often, it isn't there yet, not because the technology has failed, but because nobody managed the adoption."

The white paper argues that hospitality AI has reached a turning point: the hardest problem has shifted from acquisition to adoption. Drawing on recurring patterns observed by HiJiffy's Customer Experience team across its hotel clients, the report identifies five reasons AI rollouts stall, none of them primarily technical. These range from the lack of clear ownership and insufficient training to failure to redefine workflows once AI begins saving teams time.

To bring perspectives from across the industry to the analysis, the publication features contributions from seven specialists spanning hotel technology, people and culture, marketing, commercial strategy and performance: Alicia Dick Wahlberg, People & Culture Consultant; Paul Griffiths, Head of Commercial Growth & Strategic Partnerships at GuestRevu; Neely Khan, Founder of kahani; Zoe Koumbouzi, Travel & Hospitality Tech Marketing Advisor; Chris Peppers, Head of Online Marketing at JF-Hospitality; Danica Smith, Mindset & Performance Coach for Hospitality; and Sam Weston, Head of AI & Marketing at 80 DAYS. Their perspectives explore the human and organisational factors behind successful AI adoption, from employee trust and leadership to skills, communication and changing ways of working.

To help hotels assess their own progress, the whitepaper introduces the Hotel AI Adoption Maturity Model, a four-level framework spanning Imposed, Tolerated, Adopted and Owned. Rather than rating an entire property as "AI mature" or not, the model assesses adoption tool by tool, recognising that the same hotel can fully embrace one AI solution while resisting another.

HiJiffy's analysis found that fewer than one in ten of the client situations reviewed by its Customer Experience team remained at the lowest maturity level, Imposed. Roughly 20% had reached Owned, the highest level, where employees actively propose new use cases for AI and the technology provider is treated as a strategic partner rather than simply a vendor.

"Adoption doesn’t happen when a contract is signed, or a login is created." said Tiago Araújo. "It happens when a team understands why a tool matters, learns how to use it well, and eventually starts finding better ways to use it themselves. That's a leadership challenge, not a procurement one."

From Imposed to Owned: The Guide to Hotel AI That Sticks is available at hijiffy.com/hotel-ai-adoption-white-paper