If you’re in hotel media and communications—part storyteller, part strategist, part brand builder—you likely thrive when 1000 things come at you at once. The work spans digital campaigns, brand storytelling, content creation, social strategy, reputation management, and internal communications. It might feel like drinking from a fire hose at times, but that’s the thrill of the ride.
Since late 2022, the world of branding and communications has increasingly intersected with artificial intelligence (AI), turning novelty into necessity. From editing voiceovers in Descript to building scalable, brand-consistent visuals in Canva, AI now supports workflows across the portfolio. Adobe Creative Cloud’s Firefly is integrated into design tools. DALL·E visualizes storyboards. Imagen refines and culls photography. Canva’s Design Assistant helps roll out templates across 40+ hotels. The result? Not just efficiency—but scalability with style, ensuring creativity remains uncompromised.
ChatGPT has been helpful to critique menu layouts and guide upselling strategies with mock-ups built in Illustrator. Not to replace design instinct—but to refine it, sharpen the storytelling, and accelerate time to execution.
AI no longer just fixes typos. It pitches content angles, reshapes visuals, rewrites metadata, and reimagines tone. However, fully leveraging AI requires fluency—mastering prompts, formatting outputs, and training AI to match brand tastes and tones. Once this is achieved, the returns are tangible.
The Future of Hospitality is an AI-Enhanced Guest Journey
At the recent 2025 HSMAI Commercial Strategy Week and Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC®), the message was clear, AI is rapidly reshaping hospitality. AI tools now predict demand gaps, build custom itineraries, and respond to guest sentiment in real-time. Vendors demonstrated systems that swiftly answer questions such as, “Why is Tuesday weak for bookings?” and suggest corrective strategies faster than manual processes.
Generative AI is also transforming the rules of search engine optimization (SEO), evolving into what’s now being called GEO—Generative Engine Optimization. Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) emphasizes visibility driven by helpful, structured, and semantically rich content. Tools like Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini power research, while conversational AI platforms anticipate and personalize guest experiences. It’s about meaningful dialogue, not just keywords. Tools like Google’s AI Studio now offer the ability to evaluate and optimize your website content through an AI lens—changing how we approach relevance, structure, and storytelling online.
Sessions at these events brought real AI applications to life. Benu Aggarwal, President and Founder of Milestone, unpacked the idea of travel “agents”—AI-powered companions that guide guest decision-making. John Jimenez, VP of eCommerce & Revenue at Noble Investment Group, introduced the concept of what I’ve come to think of as ‘AI advisory councils’—where multiple platforms like Claude, Gemini, Bard, and CoPilot are blended together to create a flexible and well-rounded toolkit. It’s not about loyalty to one model—it’s about choosing the right ingredients for each task. Michael Goldrich, author of Too Many Hats, Too Little Time and now AI Literacy Playbook for Hoteliers, shared a practical framework called TRACE (Task, Role, Action, Context, Expectation) that helps make AI prompting far more effective. Each speaker echoed the same truth: AI works best when guided by human clarity.
At Newport, we’ve been using various forms of AI in business planning to shop the competition and aggregate guest sentiment—among other uses. These aren’t futuristic ideas; they’re embedded into how we work and think.
The Marriage of Two Different Skill Sets
AI doesn’t replace human skill—it enhances it. This synergy between human intuition and machine accuracy gives us back critical time for strategy, storytelling, and genuine guest empathy. It allows teams to stop merely reacting and start proactively creating. Think of AI as a dashboard for imagination—predictable tools managing routine tasks, freeing space for human creativity to shine.
In marketing, AI enables quicker video edits, instant polished copy, and visuals aligned perfectly with brand voices. For branding, it offers agile testing of concepts, faster feedback loops, and deeper audience insights. In communications, AI ensures clarity and consistency at scale.
However, navigating AI can feel overwhelming and complex. With new terms like VEO, SGE, and agentic workflows constantly emerging, confusion and uncertainty are natural. Fact-checking, understanding, and critical analysis remain essential skills—AI assists but doesn’t replace these fundamental capabilities.
HSMAI and HITEC® 2025—were sources of inspiration, revealing connections among revenue, operations, digital, sales, and design sectors. AI now plays the role of a trusted team member, elevating cross-functional collaboration and innovation.
Curiosity Is the New Superpower
Walt Disney said, “When you’re curious, you find lots of interesting things to do.” This holds especially true in an AI-driven world. Curiosity fuels continuous learning, making the influx of new platforms less daunting and more exploratory.
Beyond hospitality, AI impacts healthcare, education, entertainment, and daily life. Much like hearing a lyric expressing your exact feelings—AI clarifies thoughts and voices ideas more articulately. It’s not just a tool but a thoughtful partner.
Today, everyone is essentially an early adopter. Whether automating review responses or crafting immersive campaigns, AI’s presence is undeniable. The goal isn’t mastering every tool but staying curious, adaptable, and deeply human.
Two actionable steps: Create a Co-Pilot AI Agent to assist with repetitive tasks this week, and join an AI-focused peer group or community to exchange insights. Each AI journey is unique, shaped by that individual’s needs and creativity.
We’re entering this new era not with fear, but with fascination. Learning AI’s language transforms it from a tool into a creative translator—enhancing how we concept, write, design, and deliver. It’s how we amplify, accelerate, and stay ahead—squeezing more juice out of every marketing effort, without losing flavor. If you’re experimenting with AI in your own workflow—I’d love to hear from you. Let’s keep the conversation going and learn from one another’s use cases.
If growth and improvement drive you—if being better than yesterday motivates your daily efforts—AI is your powerful ally. Remember, foundational skills remain vital–just like math. If technology falters, we must rely on our capabilities to deliver. Curiosity sharpens our skills. It’s time to light it up with AI.
