How AI is changing the shape of tourism and hospitality

As part of January’s Marketing Breakfast, we heard from Manu Kastia, Founder at Digital Dialog.

We learnt how Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can improve the visitor experience and streamline business operations and marketing. Together with visitor facing businesses in Bankside, we looked at how we should be adopting the right AI mindset for 2026, instead shifting from ‘using’ AI to ‘Partnering’ with AI. We analysed real life examples of how tourism and hospitality businesses are using AI today, seeing how AI tools and features can deliver real business value, today and into 2026 and beyond.

Key takeaways from the session included:

1. AI should be treated as a thinking partner, not just a tool
   The session emphasised a shift from using AI at the end of tasks to working with it earlier in the process, helping shape thinking, explore options, challenge assumptions, and support better decision-making.
2. Practical tourism and hospitality use cases are already delivering value
   Several real-world use cases were explored, including turning unstructured surveys, reviews, and feedback into usable insights in minutes, personalising marketing communications using AI, and using chatbots and voice agents to handle high-volume customer interactions
3. Deep research is a powerful AI capability that is currently underused
   Most people are not yet fully exploiting AI’s ability to conduct structured research, compare sources, synthesise complex information, and support more informed planning and strategic thinking.
4. AI agents are likely to grow rapidly in popularity
   AI agents were highlighted as a way to automate multi-step tasks, monitor information continuously, and reduce repetitive workload, effectively acting as a digital extension of small teams.
5. Connecting AI to business systems leads to more meaningful outcomes
   AI delivers far greater value when connected to live systems such as booking platforms, CRMs, inboxes, or spreadsheets. This allows AI to work with real business data rather than generic assumptions, supporting more accurate thinking and action.
6. Search is changing, and the customer journey often no longer starts with a click
   The session highlighted that the customer journey increasingly begins inside AI tools rather than traditional search results. Businesses should consider whether they appear in AI-generated answers and what those answers say. It also emphasised that long-form, informational content and content in accessible formats, rather than locked in PDFs, is more likely to be surfaced and cited.

Digital Dialog is an AI consultancy and digital agency specialising in AI literacy, strategy and implementation. They support organisations through consultancy, training and advisory work, helping teams apply Generative AI across business and marketing activity. Within digital, they have a strong track record in tourism, travel and hospitality, working with destinations, DMOs and visitor economy organisations, alongside businesses and organisations across other sectors. Their background includes more than a decade of experience in advertising and digital media, covering digital strategy.

The full slides from the session are available on request. Contact Emma Charter, ec@betterbankside.co.uk for more details.

For online courses on AI, including AI and its practical uses in business, visit SEEDL, our online learning platform.