Hyatt CEO Says AI Sales Tools Save One Day Per Week and Increase Group Bookings Share

Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian said AI-powered sales tools are saving each salesperson roughly one day per week while lifting the company’s share of group bookings. Hoplamazian spoke Tuesday at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference during a session with Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy.

He said the tools help the sales team respond to the more than one and a half million RFPs the company receives each year from corporate customers.

“We’ve grown our market share and group business, and freed up a full day a week per salesperson who’s otherwise working on this—and the ability for them to go and optimize the remainder of the revenue stream for the hotel has been really fantastic,” Hoplamazian said.

Hyatt has also introduced a conversational search interface that lets travelers describe trips in natural language. The company pairs internal hotel data with external customer feedback to surface operational insights for staff.

Through its partnership with Snowflake, Hyatt feeds AI systems hotel operating metrics, customer data, Tripadvisor and Yelp reviews, blog feedback, and local market conditions. The analysis produces recommendations aimed at cutting friction points and increasing time for guest interactions.

Ramaswamy said AI reduces the need for lengthy data-integration projects because models can now connect information across different systems.

Tasks that previously took years can now be completed in months, he said. “AI now comes with built-in glue,” Ramaswamy said, meaning models can talk to two different systems and stitch the data together. Hoplamazian added that success should be measured by employee “absorption” of the technology rather than simple adoption.