Ahead of the Phocuswright Conference 2025, leaders reveal how AI has changed their workday and is powering their progress
Artificial intelligence isn’t just reshaping travel technology, it’s reshaping the way travel leaders think, work, and create. From using AI to communicate more clearly to embedding it into enterprise platforms that forecast demand and personalize experiences, executives across the industry are finding new ways to collaborate with machines.
Some embrace AI as an everyday assistant; others approach it with caution, mindful of preserving human creativity and judgment. Yet all agree: the potential is enormous, and we’re only at the beginning of understanding how these tools will redefine travel, business, and leadership itself.
At The Phocuswright Conference 2025, taking place November 18th-20th at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, California, industry leaders will share how AI is transforming their daily work and their companies’ strategies.
AI in action: Voices from the industry
Eric DeLange, Industry Director and U.S. Head of Finance and Travel, Reddit
“I’ve been enjoying using our recently launched Reddit Answers, an AI-powered conversational interface that allows Redditors to ask a question and receive answers sourced and linked to communities and posts. It’s been helpful to get deeper into the human conversations that are happening on the platform, which helps ensure I’m tapped into the conversations relevant to my categories and clients.”
Sarosh Waghmar, Founder & Chief Product Officer, Spotnana
“Spotnana currently uses AI for a number of different needs and is rapidly adding support for more use cases. Our approach to AI is to focus on highly practical, high-value applications, including virtual travel agents and automated disruption handling. Our R&D teams use a variety of AI coding tools like Cursor, Claude and GitHub Copilot daily to boost productivity and innovation. The goal is to have AI play a major role in our development process.”
Mariano Dima, Chairman, Civitatis
“It is embedded in my everyday life, from searching, learning and developing new ideas to helping me communicate more effectively with teams and companies. I use various LLMs, Comet as my browser and Cursor and Lovable for coding and building prototypes. Still, there is so much to learn.”
Jeff Kim, CEO, Yanolja Cloud, and Chief Strategy Officer, Yanolja Group
“I use AI every day, often in ways I hardly notice. Whether it is seeing AI-generated summaries when I search for hotel reviews, getting insights directly in AI-powered recommendations or using translation and writing tools to work across languages and markets, AI has become part of my routine. These tools save time and let me focus on higher-value work. At Yanolja, we are taking those same everyday efficiencies and applying them at scale to create a more connected traveler experience… What excites me is seeing how the efficiencies I experience personally with AI can be scaled through enterprise innovation to connect the entire travel ecosystem.”
Steve Schwab, CEO, Casago
“AI informs decisions, it doesn’t make them… Looking ahead, I’m excited about AI that surfaces owner-impacting insights faster – predicting when a home is at risk of underperforming, flagging guest-experience friction before it shows up in reviews and summarizing multi-channel owner communications so our local teams can stay proactive without drowning in dashboards.”
Recep “Richie” Karaburun, Clinical Associate Professor, NYU Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism
“I use AI in my teaching and research to analyze trends, generate insights and prepare case studies for students. It helps me bring real-time industry developments into the classroom and make discussions more engaging. Looking ahead, I’d like to see AI play a greater role in predictive analytics for travel behavior and in helping companies design more personalized and sustainable experiences.”
Caroline Strachan, CEO, Festive Road
“I have a love-hate relationship with AI. I don’t want to lose my critical thinking ability, so I focus AI use on all the stuff I’m useless at: image creation to tell a story, for instance. (I’m a dreadful artist.)”
Paul Jacobs, General Manager & SVP, North America and Asia Pacific, Kayak
“Much of my job is communication – internally at Kayak and externally with partners. I think I’m pretty well spoken, but I have reluctantly started having AI rewrite things for me. Turns out, I can be shorter and punchier.”
David Hoctor, director of U.S. verticals, travel and gaming for TikTok Global Business Solutions
“AI is a powerful tool that allows us to level the creative playing field, boost productivity and uncover insights at scale. At TikTok, we’ve built TikTok Symphony, a suite of generative AI tools that help with creative ideation/production/adaption, leading to more volume and variety for content that resonates.”
Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association
“AI can help us reimagine the travel experience by improving the systems and technology we already have. Picture TSA lines that adapt in real time to passenger volumes or customs officers deployed where bottlenecks are about to form. Just as important, AI creates the ability to personalize the journey – tailoring information, recommendations and even security or check-in processes to each traveler.”
Adam Harris, CEO of Cloudbeds
“I already use AI as a thought partner- helping me synthesize information quickly, prepare for conversations and pressure-test decisions. But what excites me most is where this goes next for leaders in hoteliers: agent-based systems trained on hospitality knowledge. Imagine an internal “hotel sage” that can answer any question about your property, from staff onboarding to marketing content, all in your brand’s voice. That’s the future we’re building, and it will change how every hotelier works.”
AI at the center of Phocuswright 2025
This year’s conference theme, “Game On,” underscores the urgency for travel companies to adapt to a new era of competition, technology, and consumer expectations. AI will be a central thread across the program, with sessions spanning AI-first OTA strategies, loyalty reinvention, payments and trust, and the rise of social discovery platforms like TikTok, Reddit, and YouTube.
“AI is becoming the operating system of travel,” said Eugene Ko, Director of Marketing and Communications at Phocuswright. “What’s fascinating is how leaders are using it not only to transform their companies but also to change the way they work as individuals. At The Phocuswright Conference, we’ll showcase these stories and explore how AI is reshaping strategy, operations, and innovation across the travel ecosystem.”
At The Phocuswright Conference 2025, executives will explore how AI is transforming travel – from predictive analytics and personalization to operational efficiency and product innovation. Highlights include:
Executive Panel: Social Search, Viral Inspiration and the Future of Travel with Reddit, TikTok and YouTube
Executive Interview: Barry Diller
Presentation + Executive Interview: Travel Search in the AI Era with Google
Executive Panel: Reinventing Hotel Booking with AI with DirectBooker and Thayer Investment Partners
Executive Interview: Playing to Win in the Next Era of Travel with Booking Holdings
Phocuswright Research: What Can Travel Learn From AI-Native Startups? with Mike Coletta
Executive Panel: AI Agents, Real Transactions – The New Travel Economy with Visa, Stripe and Arc