Danica Smith and Josiah Mackenzie: Is AI Actually Improving Our Lives?

In this episode, Danica Smith, Guest Experience Correspondent at Hospitality Daily and founder of MorningStar GX, joins Josiah Mackenzie to share her read on AI in travel and hospitality, fresh from the main stage at AI Summit Barcelona, where not one person in the room said they would let an AI agent book their trip without approval. Danica and Josiah compare that hesitation with Josiah’s recent experience using AI to research and book a trip. They also discuss inequality in experimenting with AI, what productivity measures can miss about hospitality work, consent when technology records guests, and whether a new tool is actually making life better.

Mentioned in this episode:

• AI Summit Barcelona
• Women in Travel Thrive
• ChatGPT Codex
• Claude
• Meta Muse
• OpenClaw
• Wispr Flow
• Granola
• Lovable
• Canva

More with Danica:

• Should Hoteliers be "Vibe Coding" with AI?
• Guest Experience Tech: What I Learned Building, Selling, and Using It
• Beyond Buzzwords: The Truth about Guest Experience

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Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands