A recently released report from the NYU School of Professional Studies Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality and Boston Consulting Group examines how artificial intelligence is transforming both the commercial and operational sides of the hospitality industry.
The report, entitled AI-First Hotels: Faster to Build, Leaner to Operate, and Richer in Customer Experience, emphasizes that data infrastructure and workforce capabilities will determine how effectively AI can scale across the industry. Many hotel companies continue to operate with fragmented technology systems that lack integration, with nearly half of hoteliers reporting difficulty accessing critical business information.
“AI is changing how hotels are discovered, chosen and booked—and it’s also changing how hotels run day to day,” Tom McCaleb, a BCG managing director and partner and co-author of the analysis, said in a statement. “As AI assistants take on more of the shopping and planning work, hotels will need to shift from optimizing for pages and ads to optimizing for algorithmic relevance and ensure their operations can deliver on more personalized guest expectations at scale.”
“Hotels are under pressure to do more with less while still delivering distinctive experiences. AI can help remove friction from back-office work and routine tasks, freeing teams to focus on higher-value guest moments,” added Nicolas Graf, a chaired professor and associate dean at NYU SPS and coauthor.
When it comes to online travel agencies, the report suggests AI-based assistants could further reshape the customer acquisition equation for hotels, as they aggregate and evaluate content from a broader range of sources while surfacing only a small number of recommendations.
On the operational side, AI adoption is accelerating as hotel companies contend with labor shortages and margin pressure. Labor costs account for roughly half of gross operating margins, and in North America, 65 percent of hotels reported staffing shortages in 2025 alongside an 11.2 percent year-over-year increase in labor costs.
According to the report, early AI deployments are already demonstrating measurable impact. Some hotels report room cleaning and preparation times reduced by 20 percent through AI-synchronized housekeeping schedules aligned with checkouts and staff availability. AI-enabled waste-tracking tools delivering real-time kitchen analytics have also produced approximately 50 percent reductions in food waste within eight months.
The workforce gap is equally pressing. Only 2.9 percent of full-time employees in travel and tourism currently possess AI skills, compared with 21 percent in technology and media. While AI-skilled hospitality roles are growing at nearly 5 percent year-over-year, the report concludes that sustained investment in talent, systems integration and AI-ready operating models will be essential for hotels seeking to compete in an increasingly algorithm-driven marketplace.