Hospitality's AI adoption problem starts with leadership, not resistance

By Rebecca Stone

HSMAI’s Commercial Strategy Conference MEA 2026 runs for two days, 17–18 November, at Conrad Dubai. Its first pre-event interview features Dr. Florian Ilgen, CSP, identified as a keynote speaker and change catalyst. His session, “Change Mindset – Embrace Change with Enthusiasm,” treats resistance as a solvable operating problem. His premise: “Growth happens where people have the vision and courage to explore the unknown.”

Why do teams resist AI?

Ilgen says hospitality’s accelerating change comes chiefly from the intensified implementation of artificial intelligence (AI), a challenge that he believes every hospitality representative can already feel or will soon encounter. He treats the mindset itself as a catalyst for turning inner resistance into genuine excitement. It can develop joy, save time and energy, and position teams nearer the front of global transformation. That is an operator proposition, not merely a motivational one.

His central correction is blunt: leaders often assume coworkers do not want to change. In his experience, they do, but stop trying because three practical supports are missing:

• Tools that explain how to change.
• A vision that explains why to change.
• Leadership and a real role model that show whom the change serves.

Ilgen says restoring all three sharply raises the chance of inspired, motivated coworkers carrying transformation through adversity. Resistance, here, is not a morale problem. It is a missing operating manual.

When should resilience change direction?

The 2026 conference theme is “Resilience. Agility. Results.” Ilgen, who has run his own business for 17 years, says first attempts usually fail, making creative work, endurance and a strong mission essential during ordinary setbacks and crises such as Covid.

Resilience means handling setbacks, recovering, learning from mistakes and sometimes overcompensating. His fitness analogy is plain: a sore muscle can signal progress. The goal stays fixed, but the route changes when it stops working. Leaders must also stay hungry for improvement. Vision supplies structure; adaptation supplies action. A stale route is not a loyal strategy.

What makes experimentation worth its cost?

Hotel commercial teams often face immediate-results demands while adopting new technologies and adjusting to changing guest expectations, a combination that can leave little room for failed experiments. Ilgen’s economic test is blunt: there is no change without tangible benefit. People change for saved time, lower cost, greater security or higher profit.

He recommends obtaining all available information, simulating with AI and testing ideas in a selected, experienced team. Leaders must then allow mistakes. Ilgen calls the expectation of experimentation without failure unrealistic. Trying a new routine several times can reveal both its benefit and how people can work with it. Management must adopt a more realistic attitude toward failure.

Can comfort zones be managed?

Familiar work brings acceptance from peers. Outside the comfort zone, staff struggle and fail. AI can also unsettle workers about their skills and future roles. Ilgen says there is no learning without error and no significant improvement within familiar routines.

His response is selective memory: recall past transformations that succeeded despite seeming terrifying at first, because that evidence supports confidence as change accelerates regardless of which AI model arrives next. Ilgen’s deliberately awkward instruction is to learn to love performing in new areas. The method resembles an operating habit rather than a motivational poster. Confidence is not proof, but neither is fear.

Who should own revenue?

Ilgen’s position is direct: “Revenue is the result of sales, marketing, distribution and revenue management working together.” Separate departmental targets can pull teams in opposite directions and leave money on the table. Hospitality’s commercial engine needs all four functions, not four private scorecards.

Ilgen’s remedy starts with shared key performance indicators (KPIs), such as total revenue, so every team works from the same commercial measure rather than a private target. A regular meeting should put all teams before the same numbers. They can then decide jointly on group bookings and promotions. Leaders should lead by example: listen, explain why the change is necessary and show quick wins. People change habits when they see the new routine work.

His most practical proposal is one weekly commercial meeting with all four functions. It costs nothing and shifts the internal conversation from individual targets to a shared result. That is not a slogan. It is a meeting on the calendar.

Can agility become complacency?

Hospitality’s greatest strength, Ilgen says, is its people, who ultimately determine whether change takes hold after the operator has designed the tools, vision and leadership required to make it work. The sector has already managed major change through Covid and machine-learning revenue management, in which software learns patterns from data, before AI became a prominent operating issue. Its agile service mindset shows a capacity to adapt.

The same “we will manage it” attitude can become improvisation instead of systematic questioning. It can preserve departmental silos, or isolated teams, rather than remove them. Unified goals across sales, marketing, distribution and revenue management can produce more efficient change while strengthening team spirit and belonging.

Before the 17–18 November conference, Ilgen’s practical test is whether commercial teams can pair AI adoption with one shared economic measure, one weekly decision forum and permission to learn from controlled failure.