Innovation

🌎 Dec 19, 2025, OpenAI launched a new in-chat app marketplace within ChatGPT, enabling travel brands to submit chat-native apps. Previously exclusive to Booking.com and Expedia, this now broad platform allows any approved developer to list their apps in a centralized directory, accessible across devices. Despite the innovative model with Stripe-powered checkout, travel transactions still direct users elsewhere for completion. The focus shifts to AI-led conversations, where travel brands compete for planning attention.

🛅 Dec 19, 2025: AI is reshaping hotel bookings, strengthening the role of OTAs like Booking Holdings and Expedia. These platforms, due to their extensive inventory, remain vital for AI-driven booking tools. Despite AI advancements, OTAs maintain a strategic advantage with their robust data handling and support systems. The landscape may intensify competition and costs for hotel visibility, while distribution power could centralize. Trusted content and reviews remain crucial for AI visibility. Source: BTIG analyst Jake Fuller.

📱 December 18, 2025, San Francisco — deLuna Hotels partners with Canary Technologies to enhance guest experiences using AI. With over 25 years of family ownership, deLuna leverages Canary’s Guest Management Platform for real-time AI communication and mobile workflows. The technology supports multilingual responses and seamless check-in/out processes, enhancing satisfaction. Canary’s solutions serve 20,000 hotels in 100+ countries and have been recognized by HotelTechReport and Fast Company.

💻 Cloudbeds, December 18, 2025, forms a strategic partnership with Traversing.ai, enhancing hotel communication and review management. This integration offers AI-powered automation, boosting guest communication, and reducing response times. Hotels see up to a fourfold increase in direct bookings. By centralizing reviews, guest satisfaction and loyalty improve. Sebastien Leitner and Blaire McCoy highlight the partnership's focus on seamless, meaningful communication. Available worldwide, this tool empowers hotels to automate inquiries and enhance guest experiences.

💳 Oracle announced updates to its Oracle Payments solution in Austin, Texas. New features include in-terminal charitable giving, expanded device offerings, and regional coverage. Key updates: availability in Canada supporting local compliance, VeriFone M450 and AMS1 devices for diverse payment methods, and integration with OPERA Cloud for streamlined check-ins. The solution extends to spas, gift shops, and parking services. Chris Adams highlights the expanded charitable and payment capabilities, enhancing connections and operational efficiency.

💻 Shiji and PC Hospitality, Asia's largest hospitality conglomerate, announced a strategic partnership in Dubai, UAE. PC Hospitality will implement Shiji's cloud-based solutions, including Daylight PMS, Horizon Distribution, and Infrasys POS, to enhance operations and support growth. With over 60 hotels, PC Hospitality aims to centralize data and improve distribution. Shiji, with 91,000 hotel clients globally, will aid in building a digital infrastructure to boost revenue and operational performance for PC Hospitality's expanding portfolio.

💻 Nearly 72% of hospitality leaders plan to adopt AI within the next year, according to a CGA by NIQ and Sona survey involving 13,000 venues. Only 26% feel prepared for large-scale AI implementation. Financial constraints led 53% to cancel investments in 2023, and optimism is low at 26%. AI is mainly used for data (49%) and marketing (47%), with lower adoption in HR and scheduling (27%). Rising costs and education gaps challenge AI expansion.

🤖 Moderators on Reddit, which has 110 million daily active users, are addressing AI-generated content by enacting rules to maintain authenticity. Concerns include content quality, social dynamics, and governance difficulties. Research by Travis Lloyd, presented at ACM SIGCHI in Bergen, Norway (Oct 18-22, 2025), involved 15 moderators overseeing over 100 subreddits. Despite AI challenges, there is a continued desire for genuine human interaction on the platform.

📈 AI x Commerce in 2025: Explore nine key stories about AI's role in commerce. Discover the reality of AI adoption, understand agentic commerce, learn from past failures, and see why this time is different. Uncover what's missing in customer experiences and how AI integrates into shopping today. Identify the players (three agent types), find out who controls the access point, question the sustainability of ad-funded models, and understand why AI selling tools are revolutionary.