Training AI Agents to Improve Personalisation and Boost Conversion

“AI agents learn to understand and anticipate unique customer needs by acting as digital receptionists across voice, chat, web, and messaging apps. They remember guests, maintaining context and continuity. Eventually, they will remember you across devices. If a guest asks about pet policies on WhatsApp, the AI suggests pet-friendly rooms when they visit the website later.

With real-time access to inventory, pricing, and PMS data, these AI agents will move beyond simple Q&A to perform transactions. They instantly check room availability, verify prices, and confirm services like late check-outs on any channel. This frictionless interaction means that guests don’t have to repeat themselves; each engagement builds on the last.

This personalisation enhances sales interactions and boosts conversion rates. Guests receive customised experiences, making them more likely to engage with offers and complete bookings. Achieving this requires strong API integrations plus strict data privacy and security measures to protect guest information and build trust.”

“AI agents are becoming increasingly sophisticated in understanding and anticipating customer needs, particularly in the hospitality industry. This is achieved through several approaches:

1. Data-Driven Personalisation: AI agents can be trained to analyse vast amounts of customer data, such as past bookings, preferences, and interactions with the brand. By identifying patterns and preferences, AI can offer highly personalised recommendations to guests, such as suggesting tailored experiences, destinations, or accommodations based on previous trips or lifestyle preferences.
2. Natural Language Processing (NLP): AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants can use NLP to interact with guests in a human-like manner, understanding their language, tone, and specific needs. This allows for seamless communication, providing guests with exactly what they want without delays.
3. Predictive Analytics: By using predictive analytics, AI can anticipate customer behavior, such as when a guest is likely to book, what offers will appeal to them, or even what type of room they are most likely to prefer. This helps sales teams target guests with personalised offers at the right time, boosting conversion rates.
4. Integration Across Touchpoints: AI systems can integrate data from various customer touchpoints, such as website interactions, social media engagement, and direct communication with the hotel. This ensures that personalized recommendations are consistent and accurate, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

By leveraging AI to understand and anticipate customer needs, hotels can provide a more personalised experience, leading to higher conversion rates and increased guest satisfaction. As AI continues to evolve, its ability to enhance personalisation and optimise sales interactions will become an even more critical driver for success in the hospitality industry.”

“There has been a lot of buzz and heated discussions about the role and impact of AI in the hospitality industry and travel in general. I have no doubt that AI will lead to a complete overhaul of the hotel tech stack and help with solving labour shortages in hospitality.

Except for the major hotel chains, hotels do not have the financial, technological or talent resources to select, train, implement and maintain AI applications on their own.

We have to give kudos to hospitality tech vendors for the speed with which they have implemented AI in their existing technologies.

So, what should hoteliers do in 2025 to prepare for AI-dominated future? Hoteliers should start asking their existing or potential vendors – PMS, RMS, CRM, CRS, CMS, marketing, operational and back-office technologies – a simple question: “Are you implementing AI in your applications, when are you going to do it, and how will that help my business?”

If there is no clear and definitive answer, fire the vendors or don’t hire them.

As for training and implementing AI agents like ChatGPT or Claude to understand and anticipate unique customer needs in the hospitality industry, I would consider two technologies as a matter of priority in 2025:

1. I will implement an AI-powered hotel-specific chatbot like Asksuite and Quicktext on the property website to handle 24/7 customer service, trip planning and booking assistance.
2. I will implement a CRM technology like Cendyn CRM or Amadeus GMS to aggregate all of hotel first-party and zero-party guest data that is cleansed, de-duped, enriched and appended. The CRM technology provides “a single source of truth” for the guest data and not only creates 360-degree guest profiles, but more importantly augments guest profiles with preferences, social media ambassadorship, customer engagement data, etc., which enables hotel departments to do their job more efficiently and effectively. For example, operations can now anticipate guest requests and preferences, and personalise customer experiences; Marketing can finally embark on one-to-one marketing and can significantly increase customer engagements via similar audiences marketing.”

“AI presents a tremendous opportunity for the travel and leisure industry to harness technology and innovation to deliver personalised solutions. As the industry shifts towards a more technologically driven approach, hotels stand at the forefront, crafting tailored experiences to meet the evolving expectations of their guests.

With consumers seeking personalised experiences more than ever, it’s essential for the hospitality industry to leverage AI to better understand their customers and anticipate their needs. For example, hotels can partner with AI-driven platforms to provide customised jet-lag recovery programs based on guests’ travel journeys prior to arrival, enhancing their stay and creating a rejuvenating experience.”