The readiness audit

1. Visibility Readiness: Can AI find you? 

Search as your guests do 

Open ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity right now and search for your properties as if you were a potential guest planning a trip. Does your brand appear in the conversation? Does it accurately describe your brand positioning? Do your unique differentiators appear in recommendations? Are your recent renovations, new services, or sustainability initiatives reflected in what these platforms say about you? 

The cost of being invisible 

If AI misrepresents your properties or overlooks key selling points that you've invested heavily in developing, you have a visibility problem that's costing you bookings right now. As discovery shifts from traditional search engines to conversational AI platforms, conventional SEO approaches alone become insufficient. You need structured data that AI systems can ingest effectively, authentic guest testimonials that carry weight in AI recommendations, and proactive monitoring to identify and correct misrepresentations before they compound over time. 

Action this quarter 

Audit how major AI platforms describe your properties. Implement structured data standards that make your content accessible. Craft the right content strategies for the right platforms, a one-size-fits all approach will not suffice. Ensure your most compelling content exists where AI systems look for information rather than where traditional search engines indexed content. 

2. Experience Readiness: Have you mapped connection versus administration? 

Map your touchpoints 

Walk through your typical guest journey from initial booking through final departure and identify which touchpoints create genuine connection versus processing administration. When guests call to modify bookings, is that primarily relationship building or administrative hassle for both parties? Does check-in feel like genuine welcome or merely a transaction that delays guests getting to their room and beginning their actual experience? 

Action within twelve months 

Run one agent-coordinated experience for a specific guest segment at a single property. Measure staff satisfaction and guest connection quality alongside operational efficiency metrics. Prove the model works before attempting to scale across your portfolio. 

3. Integration Readiness: Can your systems coordinate? 

Check what connects 

Map your technology landscape. You likely have a property management system at the core, a CRM handling guest relationships, and a loyalty platform tracking your programme. Around these sit your operational tools for F&B reservations, spa bookings, housekeeping, and revenue management. The critical question isn't which systems you have, but which ones talk to each other. Can your PMS see dietary restrictions logged in F&B? Does your front desk have visibility into spa appointments without switching systems? Most organisations discover the answer is no. 

The integration gap 

Integration, of data and systems, continues to be one of the major barriers between what travel & hospitality groups set out to achieve in their customer experience and what they deliver on. If you can't map your integration landscape in a single working session, you likely have fragmentation that prevents meaningful AI implementation regardless of how sophisticated your individual systems might be. As one technology leader described their situation: "Our 70+ AI projects are really data projects in disguise." 

The encouraging news 

Agent architecture doesn't require replacing these systems or undertaking a massive modernisation programme. Instead, it requires exposing them through interfaces that an orchestration layer can coordinate. Your property management system can remain exactly as it is, and your customer relationship management platform doesn't need rebuilding from scratch. The agent layer sits above your existing infrastructure, mediating between systems based on guest needs and the business rules you define. 

Action by mid-year: Prove it with one journey 

Map your data landscape without trying to present a more connected picture than reality. Prioritise connecting your core systems (property management, customer relationship management, and loyalty data) to enable basic agent coordination. Start with one property, one guest segment, and one journey rather than attempting enterprise-wide transformation. 

4. Organisational Readiness: Balancing top-down clarity with bottom-up energy.  

The strategic gap 

Most boards and executive teams understand that artificial intelligence matters for competitive positioning. That strategic clarity tends to evaporate when you ask the specific question: "What exactly will you do, and when will you do it?" Organisations often have bottom-up experimentation and pilot projects without top-down roadmaps that connect those initiatives to business outcomes, whilst data infrastructure gaps prevent the kind of strategic planning that would create coherent direction. 

The cultural challenge 

The cultural challenge runs considerably deeper than technology implementation. Moving from legacy systems and operational models to agent-mediated coordination requires mindset shifts across the organisation. Security concerns compound these challenges. Employees use public ChatGPT despite data risks because it's more capable than proprietary tools that limit functionality to ensure compliance. 

The foundation for success 

Success requires governance frameworks that balance security with innovation rather than treating them as opposing concerns, focused pilots that build organisational muscle through experience rather than theory, and leadership clarity about what agent readiness means for your specific brand rather than hospitality generally.  

Action now 

Define what "agent-ready" means for your organisation specifically, with concrete milestones and accountability. Establish governance for AI experimentation that enables learning whilst managing risk. Identify which roles will evolve as agent coordination scales and how you'll support people through that transition rather than simply announcing changes. 

The competitive timeline matters more than you think 

Travel and hospitality leaders see a three-to-five-year timeline before agent-to-agent coordination becomes operational reality. That's not comfortable distance for planning. That's how long it takes to build capability from scratch. 

The organisations defining what "agent-ready" means today will shape the competitive landscape tomorrow. The ones waiting for certainty will spend the next decade catching up. 

The transformation is underway. The question is what role your organisation will play in it. 

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