Jackson Hole Mountain Resort

Shannon Schiner

Guest Experience Authority

Improving Guest Experience through AI

The best way to improve the guest experience is by listening. But making sense of thousands of survey responses, online reviews, emails and frontline conversations quickly enough to act on them can be an overwhelming challenge. That's what led me to AI.

I wasn't looking to automate decisions; however, I did want a better way to hear what our guests were telling us. AI helps identify patterns, recurring themes and opportunities that might take weeks to uncover manually.

More importantly, it has allowed me to go from reacting to individual comments to making decisions based on broader trends.  AI has allowed us to ask better questions that help remove friction, recognize great service, and continuously improve the guest journey.

The role of AI in navigating challenges

Most hospitality organizations are overwhelmed by feedback, and it comes through many channels, whether we solicit it or not.  A secondary challenge is that each individual department naturally views feedback through its own lens, whether that's marketing, operations, food and beverage or guest services. AI helps connect those perspectives by organizing unstructured feedback into meaningful themes, at the same time identifying trends across the entire guest journey.

It currently helps our leaders move beyond asking, "What complaints did we receive?" to "What changes can we make that will have the greatest impact?" That shift allows teams to focus on solving root causes instead of reacting to isolated issues and creates better alignment across the organization.

Balancing AI-Driven Insights with Human Judgment

Hospitality is and will always be a people business. AI is incredibly good at identifying patterns, but it doesn't understand context, relationships or emotion the way people do. A spike in negative feedback might be caused by weather, travel delays, construction or circumstances outside your control.

AI can't recognize those nuances on its own out of the gate, but over time, it can learn to see these patterns and help make recommendations for resolutions in these types of instances. I think of AI as an assistant to all of the members of our team; it does not stand alone, but it is great at organizing information, surfacing opportunities and helping us see what we might otherwise miss. 

The best outcomes happen when leaders combine AI's speed and objectivity with operational experience, empathy and an understanding of the people behind every guest interaction.

Using AI for Service Excellence and Decision-Making

My biggest advice is to start with the business problem, not the technology. AI should help answer questions that improve operations, not simply generate lengthy reports that nobody uses. Combine guest feedback with operational data like staffing, occupancy, weather or wait times so you understand why issues are happening, not just that they exist.

Every report should lead to a conversation, an owner and a measurable improvement. Finally, don't use AI only to identify problems. Some of its greatest value comes from highlighting trends or finding employees who consistently create memorable experiences. Recognizing great service strengthens culture and reminds teams that the moments guests remember most are still created by people.

Advice for hospitality leaders preparing for AI evolution

I believe AI will become a standard leadership tool, much like revenue management or guest relationship platforms are today. We'll move beyond simply reporting on guest satisfaction and begin identifying emerging issues prior to them becoming widespread problems. As a tool, AI will continue to help leaders make proactive decisions around staffing, communication, pricing and operations.

My advice is not to chase AI because it's the latest trend; know what you need to solve for and then stay focused on your guests and your people. Use AI as an assistant, a very linear and efficient assistant that does not have feelings and cannot think outside of the box. The organizations that benefit most will be the ones that ask better questions, remain curious and use AI to support human decision-making.