> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://intelligence.artificialrealitymedia.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # S1E3: Why AI keeps failing in luxury hospitality - URL: https://intelligence.artificialrealitymedia.com/episodes/sofiane/ - Published: 2026-06-18T09:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-06-18T09:00:00.000Z - Description: Sofiane Ghorbel of AL Hospitality Group on what AI runs behind the desk, why personalisation keeps failing at the front, and who should own a guest profile. - Author: Galina Fendikevich - Tags: Hospitality, #Episode, #Import 2026-09-03 13:11 Listen instead: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3SlI9LtC93dm3T52h1ZNLk?ref=intelligence.artificialrealitymedia.com) or [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-ai-keeps-failing-in-luxury-hospitality-and/id6780699025?i=1000773200309&ref=intelligence.artificialrealitymedia.com). Luxury hospitality executive Sofiane Ghorbel breaks down how AI lets small teams operate like large organizations, why luxury clients are the least willing to share the data AI needs most, and why the biggest opportunity in hospitality AI is behind the scenes, not at the front desk. Sofiane Ghorbel is the Founder and CEO of [AL Hospitality Group](https://www.alhospitalitygroup.com/?ref=intelligence.artificialrealitymedia.com), a firm focused on luxury hotel investment, repositioning, management, and strategic advisory. With over 25 years in the industry, he's worked across hotel operations, travel, and investment, serving luxury travelers, family offices, and institutional clients. This fall, he's launching a series of AI and luxury roundtables in New Canaan, Connecticut to connect AI innovators with hospitality leaders and investors. ## What's working, what's broken, and what still needs to be built - AI is already a force multiplier for small luxury teams. Destination research, hotel comparisons, itinerary creation, and proposal prep that used to take days now happen in hours. - [Marriott](https://www.marriott.com/?ref=intelligence.artificialrealitymedia.com) deployed an AI concierge chatbot and a reporter found it couldn't even recommend local restaurants. They pivoted to revenue management and demand forecasting, where it actually delivered results. - "We don't sell rooms. We don't sell cruises. We don't sell flights. We sell trust." One wrong AI recommendation can destroy a client relationship that took years to build. - Sofiane wants an AI tool that manages the follow-up process after booking. Right now, his team manually calls every hotel concierge and provider to check on welcome envelopes, restaurant options, and whether riots have broken out nearby. - The real AI value in hospitality is behind the scenes. Investors and hotel owners who use AI to analyze markets, compare competitive sets, and move faster will win the deal. The ones who wait will lose it. ## This episode is for you if - You work in luxury hospitality, travel advisory, or hotel investment and want to know where AI actually fits your workflow today. - You're a business owner exploring AI adoption and want a real-world look at what works and what doesn't. - You're building AI products and need to hear what practitioners actually need. From privacy-safe personalization to workflow-specific tools. ## Chapters - **0:00** Meet sofiane ghorbel: 25 years across every side of luxury hospitality - **1:28** High-tech plus high touch: the only recipe that works - **2:12** AI is a force multiplier for small luxury teams - **4:09** Hotel operators are already using AI. Here's where. - **5:18** The biggest AI opportunity might not be at the front desk - **6:36** Marriott's chatbot couldn't find a nearby restaurant - **7:53** The privacy paradox: luxury clients won't share their data - **8:36** "We don't sell rooms. We sell trust." - **11:18** Confidently wrong is still wrong - **15:01** What still needs to be built: privacy-safe personalization - **15:52** Hospitality needs workflow-specific AI, not generic tools - **19:25** "We are his shadow": how luxury follow-up actually works - **24:24** Virtual tours before the real trip: AR and VR in luxury - **27:27** Why new york is the right ecosystem for AI and luxury - **29:52** Every luxury hotel will use AI by 2030\. Who will use it well? ## Artificial Reality - Every industry we have covered: [AI across industries](https://intelligence.artificialrealitymedia.com/industries/) - For business owners and execs: [what operators actually run](https://intelligence.artificialrealitymedia.com/for-ai-buyers/) - For AI founders and product teams: [what your buyers are asking for](https://intelligence.artificialrealitymedia.com/for-ai-companies/) - Website: [artificialrealitymedia.com](https://www.artificialrealitymedia.com/?ref=intelligence.artificialrealitymedia.com) - In-person events: [luma.com/artificialreality](https://luma.com/artificialreality?ref=intelligence.artificialrealitymedia.com) ## Transcript **Full transcript** **Galina Fendikevich · 00:00** Welcome to Artificial Reality, the reality behind AI adoption. I'm your host, Galina Fendikevich. Today I have Sofiane Ghorbel the founder and CEO of All Luxury Hospitality Group. Sofiane thank you for joining me today. How do you know? Tell me about yourself and your experience in hospitality. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 00:16** So who I am? So I'm a hospitality executive with twenty-five plus years of experience, experience in luxury hotels, in resorts, travel, concierge services, and the destination management. So experience experience working with luxury travelers, executives, entrepreneurs, family offices, and institutional clients. I'm a founder of AL, our luxury hospitality. group involved also in hotel ⁓ investment repos repositioning management marketing and strategic advisory experience so my perspective is unique because i have seen hospitality from the guest perspective the operators perspective the owners one and the investors one **Galina Fendikevich · 01:03** That is such a great background because you can speak to multiple different groups of people on the topic that we're going to cover today, which is AI adoption in luxury hospitality. Hospitality is known for its hyperpersonal personalization and human touch. So I'm really excited to hear how has AI been really good in luxury hospitality. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 01:24** Yes, so after more than twenty five years ⁓ in hospitality, luxury travel I said, hotel operation, hotel investment, advisory, and ⁓ I believe AI will fundamentally transform our industry. However, AI will not replace hospitality. hospitality is built on trust, judgment, relationships and human connection. the winners will not be the companies with the most technology. The winners will be the companies that combine high tech plus high touch. **Galina Fendikevich · 01:55** I like that high tech plus high touch. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 01:58** Technology create deficiencies, humans humans create memories. **Galina Fendikevich · 02:02** Luxury hospitality is highly personable, but can be enabled by technology. So how can AI enable this concierge level service at scale? **Sofiane Ghorbel · 02:11** Yes, that's a great question. So let's say that AI is ⁓ a force multiplier. AI allows small teams to operate like much large organizations. Example, in our field we have the destination research, hotel comparisons, itinerary creation, market analysis, translation, client communication and proposal preparation. So AI does not replace expertise. it accelerates expertise. So we will make things faster, quicker, in a more efficient and effective way. So yeah. **Galina Fendikevich · 02:48** There's some really good AI models or tools out there that help with this. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 02:54** There is there is there is some of them but not really that need more development. They need to be ⁓ to collect more ⁓ data and data is not obvious in the luxury market to have because data comes from will come from say luxury client and those luxury clients are very discreet. So they don't ⁓ they don't communicate ⁓ the that ⁓ data ⁓ as easy as as we wish. ⁓ concerning the concierge that you are talking about the best concierge anticipate needs before being asked. So AI can now help ⁓ remember preferences. This is this is why we need data for to have efficient and effective ⁓ AI AI tools. we ⁓ we need track special occasion, recommend experiences, identify patterns and anticipate requests. In many ways AI capabilities ⁓ mirror the traditional concierge role. But the best concierge still provides something AI cannot human judgment. The human judgment which is very important. So that's why I told her at the beginning that high tech plus high touch is the the right recipe. The AI we are talking about hospitality and hotels ⁓ also. So the AI and the hotel management if you're interested to know more is the hotel operators are already using AI. yes, yeah, that's why I I wanted to talk about hotel management and for revenue management, for demand forecasting, marketing optimization, guest sentiments analysis, operational efficiencies. So the **Galina Fendikevich · 04:19** How so? **Sofiane Ghorbel · 04:34** result is better service that they can provide, better profitability of course and better decision making. So this is concern the hotel management. As a hospitality ⁓ expert expert too, we are involved in in ⁓ in in dealing with investors and ⁓ hotel owners too. So those are this is where I believe ⁓ the greatest value creation may occur with those people, with those investors and hotel owners, because AI can help analyze hotel investments. identify market trends, compare competitive sets, monitor guest reviews, improve operational performance, and support repositioning strategies. So the biggest AI opportunity may not be at the front desk, it may be helping owners and investor ⁓ to make better decisions. this is in the side of the hotel invest so people are using those people are using ⁓ those AI tools and it could be of course implemented in the future. ⁓ **Galina Fendikevich · 05:36** A of this initial research, I mean AI, whichever model you use has been trained on so much data and they keep updating it with up-to-date data. And that is one of the best use cases of AI. It is that initial research, it is synthesizing a lot of these market signals, market information. So I I'm not surprised now to hear that it can be used in that investment analysis. Do that early stage analyst job ⁓ as well to speed up this analysis. Yeah. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 06:06** Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So they will do better job with all those data and quicker and faster and it's very competitive. This field of investment are very competitive. Many investors are behind the door, so and ⁓ the best and the more quickest and the most effective one will get the deal. So AI will have a lot to move forward more faster and more accurately too. **Galina Fendikevich · 06:30** And I think you're right on the spot about AI in hospitality being more powerful in the back end. I read a case study of Marriott, and Marriott tried to have this assistant to replace concierge. So when someone checked in for whatever region, there was a chatbot to give recommendations. And there was a reporter that went to test this out, and the reporter just asked for restaurants nearby because, you know, they landed, it was late, they want to eat something. And the chatbot wasn't able to give local recommendations. ⁓ yeah. So somehow they forgot to tell the chat bot all of the local restaurants around that Marriott. And they quickly pivoted and they applied it to revenue management, to demand forecasting, a lot of the back-end operations, and were able to recoup their losses from their chatbot and have been successful ever since. But the administration, the boring side, the invisible side of AI. in a back end ops for hospitality is exactly where it is the most suited for, ⁓ especially in its current format where you know the chatbot respones are impersonal and at that point it's still easier to call the concierge and ask for recommendations. So speaking of an underperforming chat bot, what's broken inside AI and luxury hospitality? What's not working so well? **Sofiane Ghorbel · 07:53** Yes, so we have the the the privacy paradox. the the better the personalization, the more data AI requires. This is the the the the point. So yet ⁓ I'm talking about luxury clients because I'm only on this field, but ⁓ luxury clients are often the least willing, as I said before, the least willing to share data. ⁓ they value privacy, discretion, security and control. And the challenge becomes How do we deliver personalization without compromising confidentiality? So this is one. This is very important. now a trust here in our field, trust is the product in our field, in the hospitality or luxury hospitality field. So in luxury hospitality we don't sell rooms. **Galina Fendikevich · 08:27** Right. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 08:41** We don't sell cruisers, we don't sell flights, we sell trust. **Galina Fendikevich · 08:45** wow. I I really like how you frame that. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 08:47** Yes, absolutely. This is ⁓ and one incorrect recommendation can damage a relationship and took years to build. So ⁓ an AI mistake it's is not simply operational, it's relational. **Galina Fendikevich · 09:01** On the privacy side, I see this story play out across the board. I mean, large enterprises are a privacy concern. They don't want to send their data to large language models outside safe environments. And now I'm hearing the same thing in luxury hospitality too. A larger question is how can you create safe guardrailed domain-specific models for this industry, which I think has a long way to go. But it goes to show that it's not just the Fortune 500 companies that care about privacy. People care about their own personal privacy, especially when it comes to intimate details such as preferences, details about their family. I know in hospitality you remember birthdays and anniversaries, and these are all very ⁓ specific details that you don't want [ChatGPT](https://chatgpt.com/?ref=intelligence.artificialrealitymedia.com) to know. Speaking to that, tell me a little bit more about how in hospitality you craft taste and how AI is unable to craft that taste for you. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 09:59** Yes, It's really a a question of relationship. So the high touch. This is why. If we don't have the high tech with us we need to have a great relationship with our luxury client and to understand and to know what they experiences before To talk with them and to get interested about how they traveled before to, to know what what taste they have, so we can adapt. So we can we say that we are the human intelligence and we do the job without AI tools and we need to be even well trained and very professional in luxury service so we need to communicate with the clients and this is how we collect data that AI would love to have They would love to have those. But discretion sometimes and privacy will I would say will not allow us to transmit it to to the AI **Galina Fendikevich · 10:54** Not only the data privacy, but that data lives in a lot of systems, doesn't it? It's kind of scattered and even hard if you wanted to give in AI data. It's very difficult because sometimes it's even handwritten. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 11:07** Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's right. That's right. ⁓ yeah, this is the challenge you know. So but the human touch is ⁓ unavoidable and AI will not survive sincerely without the high touch because confidence is not accuracy. Does it mean that hospitality remains highly fragmented and much of the industry knowledge still lives in relationships, as I said, private networks, human expertise and local market knowledge. and ⁓ many of AI systems appear very confident but confidence is not accuracy. And confidently wrong is still wrong. So this is ⁓ b a big issue about data ⁓ that that when we lack data about s about a s specific point we will have people are thinking that The information is correct, it's good, it's confident, people are confident about that, but it's not accurate because we we have we have we have already a lack of information from those luxury clients who are very count on the on on the privacy ⁓ on the privacy and discretion. So this is the point, yeah. **Galina Fendikevich · 12:20** This Touches on the next question I had, which is with general purpose models, and especially in luxury hospitality, I have not seen many AI products out there that are more curated towards this industry. So all you have to deal with are general purpose. But that requires prompting knowledge. That requires a lot of iteration on the output and just knowing what good looks like and knowing what's right and what's not right. and this can be very daunting to To newer talent in hospitality. And there seems to be this talent gap of entry-level or junior level employees in luxury hospitality trying to use AI but still not knowing what good looks like. Can you tell me about what's happening in that field? **Sofiane Ghorbel · 13:09** In that field I think the new generation ⁓ doesn't have any ⁓ choice. If they want to succeed, because AI will be everywhere. We will have always the high touch, of course, but it will be everywhere. So they need to be trained in AI. to be trained in how to use those AI tools. So what happens when AI performs? Research, drafting, analyzing. This is where we will find AI. What becomes of the hospitality professional, those hospitality professionals? So my answer will be. the role becomes more valuable and professional those professionals will spend less time processing information and more time creating relationship so this is the the the goal and the the finality finally of that and but they need to be trained to use those tools and even the company where they will work needs to have this this will to to train them their their stuff how to use those many tools that will they will appear in the future. and they will take care more on ⁓ in relationship and it is good, this is the high touch and we will do the the the the the job much better than before. **Galina Fendikevich · 14:18** And that's the fun part, right? Creating the relationships, getting to know your clients. Exactly. That's the stuff that you want to do more. I've seen a lot of case studies on AI adoption and I've seen that peer training is the best. When you can sit down with your coworkers, help each other out with a prompt or a certain tool knowing how to use it. And then having that know how that enables your client relationship, that is the most beautiful way. where do you see the next stage in AI and luxury hospitality? What still needs to be built to enable this field? **Sofiane Ghorbel · 14:56** Yes. So what still needs to be built. So so very important first of all is the privacy safe personalization which is very important. and the future belongs to systems that allow personalization, privacy and client ownership data. And ⁓ clients should control their own preferences profiles, not technology platforms. Those this point is very important because data will come from there and accurate data, accurate data will come from that. Complete data about luxury clients, those this point is very important. So about privacy safe, personalization. **Galina Fendikevich · 15:35** And it sounds like the keys need to be with the client and the client gives you a certain access to their own data, but they manage their profile, they manage what they want you to see and have access to. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 15:47** Exactly, exactly. Not the techno not technology platforms, absolutely that. And ⁓ second point, the AI AI designed it for hospitality professionals, most AI tools are generic currently. and ⁓ hospitality needs workflow specific solutions. So real workflow means start from the inquiry. Discover go to discovery, go to curation, go to booking, it goes to travel, it goes to follow up, it's go to loyalty, and ru at the end repeat business. So this is the real workflow currently and this is where enormous value remains to be created. So this is the challenge for me and need to be built. **Galina Fendikevich · 16:32** Can you give me a couple of examples within that workflow of what a really good tool would help you accomplish? Because a lot of the listeners, they've never worked in luxury hospitality. So when you mention inquiry, for example, what does that look like when somebody makes an inquiry? **Sofiane Ghorbel · 16:49** So when someone ⁓ inquire or requests a trip for example, it would be great to have already all the preferences and the the the guest ⁓ history of this client, his taste because we know ⁓ AI lacks taste. So because luxury is not information, luxury is judgment, looks luxury is knowing. So ⁓ which hotel fits a family, which destination fits an ⁓ an occasion, which experience fits personality when not to recommend ⁓ something. So the most valuable hospitality skills remain human judgment. And the inquiry step is very important. It's where we have all those information. you know, it's like in the financial fields when we we start doing ⁓ feasibility studies about the project. We start with what? We start always with the market study. Right. You know? So this is qu quite the same. Quite the same. The inquiry It's like the beginning, you know, of the process. The market study for a feasibility study. And the how we say the client of the client study, if you want, you can tell it like this, that this where we need those AI tools or those data and we will be more efficient, more effective, and we will satisfy the needs of the client. We know exactly what they want thanks to that. So this is an example. **Galina Fendikevich · 18:19** This is a very great example. And AI is a data aggregator. Again, that is just perfect, perfect example of what it can do. At the end of the day, you will still make the judgment and the final decisions for your client because you still know them the best. But it can help you get there so much faster. And then you can service more clients because that initial intake process is **Sofiane Ghorbel · 18:42** Absolutely. And even at the front desk, so of the hotel, as you said ⁓ earlier about the the client at the front desk for you know looking for a recommendation of of a restaurant. So if we have an AI tool for that, and we have all the history, the guest history, and the preferences, it'd be so easy ⁓ to to provide them with choices, the right choices, accurate choices. thanks to that so ⁓ inquiry could come from in many in many situation and and yes so this is this is ⁓ another example. **Galina Fendikevich · 19:13** That's amazing. Can you give me one more example in this workflow to paint a picture of what is required in a single step where AI could really help? **Sofiane Ghorbel · 19:23** The follow up maybe, you know, when people when for example a client is already ⁓ on the trip and we need to follow up everything from A to Z. we are his shadow. in the luxury we are always here. We don't let ⁓ the client going on the trip. He paid, okay, so good luck. See you next time. No, no. So we ⁓ we in the luxury or at least in our company, we are ⁓ every day not disturbing them. We don't follow we Don't call them at all, but we call all those providers that they are using that that we booked. I'm all we are already in in contact with the concierge of the hotel in Rome. Is it Rome in this hotel? they receive our call and is everything is alright. Do they have the envelope, the welcome envelope letter? Do they have their bottle of champagne already there? Everything it chased. It's like that part of their team and I'm in their how we say the briefing t ⁓ meeting in the morning they have already their briefing meeting in the morning it's like that I'm here there and my seat is is there. So this is how we behave. And it takes us a lot of time. This is the problem. So with AI, what I would like to have is an AI tool that will simplify ⁓ this process because we are in the luxury side the process to manage the follow up and to make it more quick for us, less ⁓ time saving, This will be very great because for us it's very important to this step of follow up is very important. It is where the client will be loyal. Those are the next steps and repeat business. Don't ⁓ send people in Italy and leave them there. So and waiting for their call because they have an issue or they have they need a recommendation of a restaurant. So we will always anticipate and ⁓ the AI tool will help. I don't have this tool till now. I hope that we will find it, but it will be great to have it. **Galina Fendikevich · 21:13** It sounds like a lot of project management after the booking and when the client is on the trip. As you mentioned, so many details. Is the letter there, is the champagne there? Do I have three Italian restaurants ready to go? Because they will inevitably ask for recommendations on that. Do I have boat options depending if they're going to the Amalfi Coast? **Sofiane Ghorbel · 21:35** Absolutely. And even depending on the weather. that's true. Yeah, the AI will we provide us with depending on many, many criteria and this it's great. We don't have only the preferences of ⁓ of the client. The AI of course will have all those data and we will know they will provide us with some example of suggestions of restaurants, for example, museums because he he used to love arts, only arts, arts, arts, but not history, ⁓ for example. And AI will provide us with that through those data of ⁓ coming from their preferences, but even the weather. Terraces in Paris, you cannot go to a terrace in ⁓ Saint Germain-despris Domago, for example, when the terrace is ⁓ it's raining, you cannot ⁓ have fun on the terrace because the fun is the terrace, it's not inside the cafe. It's in you need to be there because people want to to ⁓ you know the Mathieu Vu, they they want to to be seen. And the to be seen is on the terrace. We we speak ⁓ luxury here, ⁓ speak luxury. So ⁓ so even AI would provide us depending on the on the situation. Depends if they are in they have riots in this particular area. For example, you know, AI will provide us everything. So ⁓ this is great to have it. **Galina Fendikevich · 22:49** Yes, you don't want to send a client in the middle of a riot to get to a restaurant. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 22:53** Yeah, absolutely. And the riots sometimes happens ⁓ suddenly. we don't expect after a game of soccer game, for example, there there are rides like last month, ⁓ it happens in Paris. But so where they don't need to be in a specific area where the rides are This is the the the strength of the AI, so to get all those information and all those data from everywhere. Makes it like a cocktail and give us a great cocktail. This is great. I love it. **Galina Fendikevich · 23:21** Yes. And it does sound like the next evolution of AI really needs to have that three sixty multimodal view, not just text based responses, but videos pulling from social platforms consistently in real time to inform you. Real time reviews as well of any ⁓ any experiences that you set up. I mean this is this is a very big project. And to the point of general purpose, this really needs to be hospitality focused. Because you don't want an AI that I don't know can also do physics equations for you that just takes up a lot of memory. You want it more on what matters, the political or the social situation in a city, restaurant recommendations, weather, and experienced providers paired with your own input that you know about the client. So you can so you can really craft the experience with your data that's in your head data that's out into the world and be there for your client at the end of the day. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 24:22** Absolutely. I have another example, for example, let's say the discovery, the second. After inquiry we have the discovery or the curation, yeah. discovery curation steps. So we can use ⁓ AI will use the ⁓ it's maybe part of the AI, it's the ⁓ augmented augmented reality, the AR and the VR. this in this step of discovery curation we can we can Make we don't have this tool now, huh? But in the future I hope that we will have it. people when the goggles, you know, the Apple goggles will be more democratized and ⁓ cheaper and everyone will have goggles at home. I said also always for the I'm talking about luxury clients. And they can discover the destination or two or three destinations with the goggles, they can even meet people there in the destination. for example meeting s some of the people talking to them **Galina Fendikevich · 25:14** to the team that would take care of you. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 25:16** the team or the some of the providers or maybe a tour, a guide, or maybe the hotel, the concierge, **Galina Fendikevich · 25:24** so you can get a taste. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 25:26** Yes, absolutely. They will taste. They will get in ⁓ relation in direct relation with people there on site virtually. it's ⁓ let's say it's a it's a immersive, it's like an immersive experience. They can even for people who luxury travels who are sensitive about impact get ⁓ connected to some villages or some people that get that will be funded for their social work for example We'll have a team of course there ⁓ for that. they will communicate together virtually, they will talk to each other, they will show them to those luxury donors, their program or their project that they want they l looking for fund for that. could happen in the future and it would be great I think to have this and the world will be smaller, people will be interconnected more easily and this could be done before the the real travel, the real trip. They will prepare the trip so those luxury travelers will be here preparing their trip and having an impact on this village at the same time before traveling to this site. And many things could be done done with AI in the future, for example with VR and and AR. So this is an example for this step of ⁓ discovery creation, **Galina Fendikevich · 26:44** You're giving listeners so many ideas. And that sounds very cool. Very cool. I would love to go on a virtual tour. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 26:52** Yeah, before your physical trip, yes, absolutely, before. **Galina Fendikevich · 26:56** Get a sense of what I like, what I don't like. You can manage whether it's in AI generated world during the curation process using the tool to help you tweak the experience to the client's specific taste. That sounds very powerful. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 27:12** I agree. **Galina Fendikevich · 27:13** Tell me about this New York Fairfield County work that you're doing. there's a saying it's built in Silicon Valley and it's exported to the users in New York. And how are you facilitating this innovation here? **Sofiane Ghorbel · 27:28** Yes, so the the the New York metropolitan area i is uniquely positioned I think. So why? because it combines family offices, wealth managers, luxury brands, hospitality expertise, entrepreneurs and technology innovators. So few places globally have this concentration of capital, talent and luxury consumers. I live in New Canaan, but I'm commuting to New York City because our office is on Park Avenue. And one of the things we are launching at AL Hospitality Group is a series of small ⁓ AI and luxury roundtables in New Canaan. the purpose is to bring together AI innovators, hospitality leaders, family offices, you know investors. And entrepreneurs. So I believe that the future will be built by collaboration between the people creating the technology and the people serving clients every day like me. New Canaan and the New York metropolitan area, offer a unique ecosystem for that, for those conversations. This is my ⁓ agenda, my plan to do it starting fall, I think to we will start **Galina Fendikevich · 28:40** And this is why you're my guest on this show. The entire purpose of artificial reality is to create that feedback loop between the people creating AI and the people actually using it. Because the people creating AI don't work in luxury hospitality or are not practitioners in all these other industries. So they don't get a front row seat into what the process is like during an inquiry, what the follow up is in luxury hospitality. For someone like you using it, there's a huge gap where you wish there was more to enable you. And with all of the ideas that you've given, even in AR/VR, you're helping the audience, a lot of my network in Silicon Valley, giving them all these ideas and requirements. And they have a lot of hackathons there. So I just want to say here are five products you can build from Sofiane Go build it. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 29:34** Thank you. **Galina Fendikevich · 29:35** What do you think is the next step for luxury hospitality? What is the biggest opportunity and where do you think AI will be for this industry in 2030? **Sofiane Ghorbel · 29:48** Yes, so my prediction for twenty thirty ⁓ is quite tomorrow, so ⁓ I think that every luxury hotel will use AI. ⁓ every luxury travel advisor will use AI, every concierge concierge team will use AI, every hotel owner will use AI, every family office will evaluate AI opportunities. the question is ⁓ no longer whether AI will be Adopted. The question is: who will use it intelligently? This is the question. **Galina Fendikevich · 30:20** And w is that still on the back end side instead of the front client facing side? All of these people will use AI on the back end operations to enable the client experience. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 30:34** So it's helping owners, operators, and advisors make better decisions. So AI can analyze markets, guest sentiment, pricing trends, operational performance, and competitive positioning at a scale no human team can match. The the largest value creation may occur. behind the scenes. So in investment, in asset management, repositioning strategy and decision making. this is where the really behind the scene that ⁓ things could happen mostly and more efficient way and effective way. **Galina Fendikevich · 31:08** It sounds like opportunities are at every step from investment to crafting a great client experience. There's so much room for AI to support the industry. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 31:19** And because the AI, the data are available for behind the scenes for the investment for for studies, the numbers are there. But the other side comes from the luxury client who are very Privacy and control discretion are very, very important. So we we have a lack of data from them. And here accuracy will be I would say negatively ⁓ affected. **Galina Fendikevich · 31:42** Privacy is key, accuracy is key. I think those are the foundational pieces in order to start even building really good AI products. If people wanted to learn more about you or look into booking a luxury travel experience, how can they get in touch? **Sofiane Ghorbel · 31:52** Exactly. Yeah, get in touch with me through my [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/?ref=intelligence.artificialrealitymedia.com) because I love relationship. feel free to reach out to me ⁓ on my LinkedIn. I will be happy to to get connected to you and to serve you in the in the best manner. you will feel at home through my LinkedIn account. But our website of course is [www.alhospitalitegroup.com](http://www.alhospitalitegroup.com/?ref=intelligence.artificialrealitymedia.com) **Galina Fendikevich · 32:25** Great. Thank you so much, Sofiane. You had a lot of very good insights into luxury hospitality and where AI builders can help you serve your clients best. Thank you so much. **Sofiane Ghorbel · 32:37** Thank you, Galina, for your invite. Thank you so much. It was an honor.