In March, I checked into a hotel in San Francisco that I’ve used many times before. Same place, same brand, same loyalty number. But no one seemed to know who I was. No welcome back, no offer to skip the formality. Just another guest. And every time, it’s the same story: the systems don’t talk to each other.
If you work in the hospitality industry, you are already familiar with the issue. Guests feel like booking numbers. Staff juggle disconnected tools. Owners can’t get a clear view of what’s actually happening. And no amount of AI gloss can cover for that.
Leo Acosta, Director of Product Management at Hapi, put it plainly during our recent webinar: “For years, guest data has been trapped in silos-property management, spa, restaurant systems- and that makes it incredibly difficult to get a true 360-degree view of the guest.”
Disconnected systems don’t just slow things down; they also hinder productivity. They prevent teams from acting with relevance. Because if the data’s wrong or just missing, it doesn’t matter how good your AI is. You’ll still be guessing. Hapi’s approach is different. They provide a structured data layer that brings PMS, POS, loyalty, and other sources together in real-time. “Think of Hapi as the central nervous system for your data in the cloud,” said Leo. “We deal with the complexity in our platform so you don’t have to – even if the core systems change underneath.”
Once the data is clean and flowing, AI can finally start doing work that matters.
Doug Karmazin, Sr Director of Solution Engineering for Travel, Transport and Hospitality at Salesforce, said: “All of us here today are probably one of the last generations to have just a human-only workforce.” That line matters more than it seems. Because it’s not just speculation; it’s already playing out. At Salesforce, AI agents now handle over 30,000 weekly conversations. Most never touch a human. And they’re not doing it in theory. They’re doing it in production (check out help.salesforce.com).
Doug said it clearly: “The combination of human and digital agents is where we’re seeing the biggest gains- automating the routine, and freeing up staff for the moments that really matter.” The focus is on making better use of people’s time, not chasing big promises.
Nikolai Balba, CEO of Aquiva Labs and former VP at Amadeus, framed it through an operational lens: “The biggest shift isn’t technical. It’s operational. AI changes what teams focus on, and what they can no longer afford to ignore.” The focus is on making better use of people’s time, not chasing big promises.
Most hotels don’t need a fully autonomous AI concierge tomorrow. They need to stop answering the same questions over and over again every day. “You don’t need to start with the most complex use case,” said Doug. “Start with FAQs, guest services, loyalty queries – that’s where the value shows up fast.”
And once it does, you can take that same agent and put it wherever your guests are. “It’s not just about on-property anymore,” Doug added. “It’s pre-trip, post-trip, digital, voice, chat, SMS, even Instagram.” Build once, deploy everywhere.
There’s also the guest side, whose expectations are shifting quickly. According to HotelTechReport, 70 per cent of guests say hotel chatbots are helpful. Nearly 60 per cent say AI already improves their stays. And 65 per cent want hotel tech that’s more advanced than what they use at home. In other words, guests have moved on. Many brands haven’t.
The catch? Legacy tech. The 2024 Lodging Technology Study found that 69 per cent of hospitality professionals say integrating new systems with their existing ones is still their biggest challenge. It slows everything down, from operations to guest experience. And it stops AI from being anything more than a pilot slide.
Leo was clear on this point: “Solving integration challenges unlocks real value for hotel companies.” Not abstract potential. Real, operational value.
If your data is fragmented, your AI will be too. That’s the reality. And until that’s fixed, every chatbot, every personalisation engine, and every digital initiative will hit the same wall.
Before discussing next steps or roadmaps, it’s worth asking a more straightforward question: Do the current systems even support the basics?
This is where we come in. At Aquiva, we help hospitality brands start with something tangible. A well-defined use case. A clear outcome. We help teams run small pilots that prove value early, then scale what works. Our role is to bridge the gap between strategy and delivery.
We design experiences that carry through – not just within a stay, but across departments, properties, and brands. Whether it’s building guest profiles that persist, setting up guided workflows for staff, or ensuring loyalty offers reach the right guest at the right moment, the goal is always the same: to make the systems work together so that the people using them can do their jobs more effectively.
We’ve already built dozens of Agentforce actions tailored for real-world hospitality use cases. One example is folio retrieval. It’s one of the most common post-stay requests, and yet, in many hotels, it is still handled manually. Once the data is flowing, solving it is straightforward. The kind of quick win that builds confidence and clears the path for broader rollout. And we know that getting AI right starts with clean data. That’s why we work with Hapi and Salesforce to make sure the architecture underneath supports what teams actually need to do.
Hospitality isn’t waiting for the future to arrive; it’s already in motion. With AI adoption projected to grow at 12.5 per cent CAGR through 2034, the question isn’t if AI will change your business. It’s whether your business is ready to take advantage of it.
Check out our webinar here
Author
Greg Wasowski
SVP, Consulting and Strategy
