While this year might not be a breakthrough in innovation for the hospitality industry, hoteliers can expect to see continued improvement and adoption of artificial intelligence-powered systems.
"It's absolutely going to be another building year, but you know, with each building year, I think we do a better job of predicting business levels, using these systems to better prepare and plan for our existing operations, new developments and acquisitions alike," said Charles Oswald, CEO of Aperture Hotels.
AI advancement is moving at an incredible pace, said David Sjolander, vice president of HTNG operations at the American Hotel & Lodging Association. AI-enabled tools such as chatbots and search are rapidly improving.
"In our industry, things don't usually change very fast," he said. "It's usually pretty slow and AI is forcing us to move a lot quicker than we are used to moving."
AI search for travel booking
More travelers are turning to AI to find and even book hotel stays. According to a Booking.com report from last year, 89% of consumers want to use AI in travel planning. This growth in AI search is top of mind for hoteliers, Sjolander said.
"I have a lot of discussions with different groups of our members, and it seems like every one right now devolves into a discussion about search, the changes that are happening in search and the shift from traditional search through Google," he said.
This shift is reminiscent of the rise of online travel agents, Sjolander said, adding that hoteliers need to focus on not getting left behind.
"We're at a real pivot point on the distribution side," he said. "When OTAs came on the scene, everything changed in terms of distribution, ... we're perhaps at a similar turning point now again because of AI in terms of how hotels get booked, and so the hotels really need to understand the landscape and they can't just sit back and wait and see what happens. They really have to proactively manage this process."
Chatting with the large-language-model platforms has improved markedly in the past 12 to 18 months, Oswald said, and the hotel industry might "have a hard time keeping up with the level and instant response and the knowledge that these AI agents have."
On the brand side of things, this translates to keeping online information and content as accurate and engaging as possible, said David Jordan, senior vice president and chief information security officer at IHG Hotels & Resorts. Jordan's role is expanding next month to include infrastructure engineering/operations and enterprise platform support as chief information officer and chief information security officer.
"We're very focused on promoting hotels in the right way, making sure that we've got the right content available through whatever channels the guests are coming to us, ensuring that the wording is right and the pictures are right and that we're capturing their imagination," Jordan said.
Not only do hoteliers need to think about this content side of things to make sure their hotels are appearing on these platforms, but also think about the user experience guests are having with this technology.
"I think this year in particular is going to be really interesting, because you have to think about what is the entry point for a guest engaging with one of the big hotel chains at this point," Jordan said. "How is ChatGPT and Gemini and other platforms going to change that level of interaction?"
The rise of the chatbot
Users are getting more comfortable with chatting with an AI agent, such as ChatGPT, and this raises expectations for guests interfacing with hotel chatbots. This technology also has improved, but guests might not have yet received that message, Sjolander said.
"Up until the last year probably, chatbots were really bad. People who tried to use them, ended up not being successful, so I think they have a kind of a bad reputation. So, getting over that, and people figuring out that they're really good I think will take some time," Sjolander said. "They're already making a big difference, and they're going to continue in 2026."
Chatbots, when deployed properly, can significantly optimize hotel operations, Jordan said. And, if powered by the right technology, guests can get their questions answered automatically.
"We've clearly taken advantage of AI in our chatbots and had a lot of success through that," he said. "When we're taking millions of calls every year, being able to push some of those to chatbot technology is the right thing to do for both parties. It reduces our human-to-human interaction, and therefore the workload there."
Robot takeover
Automation's convenience is manifesting in the physical world of hotels, too, and all three experts confirmed in 2026 and the further on there will be more robotic technology in hotels. Sjolander pointed to food delivery and security robots, but Oswald emphasized the opportunities for cleaning robots that might provide a better quality clean and decrease the physical toll on housekeepers.
"The process of vacuuming a room takes about five minutes for a housekeeper, but if you can drop off a little robotic vacuum cleaner during your cleaning process, and it's working alongside you while you continue to touch all the other areas of the room, then we gain efficiency," Oswald said.
Another opportunity for robots in hospitality is drink service at a hotel that might not be able to employ a full-time barista or bartender.
"I still believe hospitality is a people business and folks want to interface with guests, but there are opportunities for some of these select-service properties to provide more services around the clock with a robotic solution," Oswald said.
Jordan is already seeing robot technology in hotels internationally, and he recognizes the opportunities it presents. A robot can take up towels to a guest who needs them while the human employee stays at the front desk to help guests checking in.
"I think over time, you're going to see robots take on increasingly more complex tasks, and I suspect that we're going to see a demand for that outside of just the the the China market," he said.
Hotel tech's potential
Despite all the progress that new technology has made in the hotel industry, there's a lot more to come. A major obstacle Oswald said hospitality faces is "fractional tech stack."
"There are so many systems that don't talk to each other, and then you have to go get another technology solution to communicate in between," Oswald said. "As you look at 2026, we're seeing a little better collaboration overall, more direct integrations. And in some cases, we see a major brand consolidating many broken systems into one big system so that will always be synchronized."
Oswald said he also hopes to see some more development for internal AI use. So far, AI-powered business insights have been operating at "a junior varsity level," but he's challenging his tech vendors to find opportunities, especially in revenue management and forecasting.
"I hope that AI evolves enough into in 2026 to where we can get to that holy grail where it's forecasting, and it can translate known demand factors like office vacancy, major events, hiring patterns, holidays, etc., into an actual number," Oswald said. "Eventually it's going to translate into revenue managers being able to handle more properties right with less people."
There's plenty of potential for AI within hotel business operations, but no one has cracked the code yet, Sjolander said.
"I don't think we're at a point yet where hotel companies are talking about AI projects that have really dramatically shown improvement, but I think we're close to starting to see some of that at the corporate level, and I think we'll see more," he said.