AI and the Future of Guest Experience

At Parade, our passion lies in helping brands create emotional connections with the people who matter most: their clients, customers, and guests. It’s not about logistics or output, it’s about how something feels. And so, as conversations about AI flood every industry, we’ve been asking ourselves: what role (if any) can or should AI play in the kind of work we do?

What AI is really great at is pattern recognition. It can suggest a hotel based on previous preferences, flag dietary requirements without human error and optimise itinerary timings with precision. In short, it can anticipate. Our recent LinkedIn post referenced Mrs Wilson from Gosford Park, because she absolutely knows, as do we, that anticipation is everything.

But anticipation is only half of the story, and whilst it matters, what really leaves its mark, is care. A guest doesn’t remember the most efficient airport transfer. They remember the perfectly presented driver who greeted them by name and knew what music they would like to listen to on their journey. 

Now that working from home is a normal part of the working week for 77% of the UK workforce, compared to only 4.7% before Covid, teams have become smaller and more scattered. In reality this means that there are fewer people around to teach, to shadow and brief, so subsequently, it’s becoming harder to pass down the kind of tacit knowledge that our industry relies so heavily on. For decades, interns and juniors learned the ropes by doing the groundwork: searching for venues, building lists, scanning decks and researching experiences. Today, Chat GPT can do most of that in minutes. But if AI handles the foundation work, where do people build their foundation?

This isn't just about interns and juniors. It’s about succession. If a generation misses out on the slow, messy, detail-obsessed part of learning, will they still develop the instincts they’ll need to lead one day? Will they know how to read a room, reassure a nervous client, pre-empt an issue or sense when someone needs a moment of quiet rather than another canapé?

We’re not anti-AI. We use it, selectively and intentionally because it helps us plan better, brief smarter and move faster. But we use it to create more space for the human work, not to replace it. Because in the end, building emotional connection isn’t about automation. It’s about attention. Real attention. The kind that AI can mimic, but never truly offer.

AI can anticipate. Only humans can care.