The Art of Anticipation: How AI Elevates Every Moment of the Guest Experience

Forty years ago, hospitality was one of the earliest adopters of technology: from the first GDS systems to the birth of digital distribution. Somewhere along the way, that spirit of innovation faded. Now, with the rise of AI, the industry has another chance to lead.

At the Destination AI Forum, Will Gilbert, one of the Co-Founders of Bodhi, joined a panel of hospitality technology leaders to explore a simple but overlooked question: how does the traveler actually win in this era of AI?

For Gilbert, the answer comes down to clarity, connection, and anticipation, and by turning fragmented hotel technology into a single intelligent system that delivers a flawless guest experience.

From Fragmented Systems to a Single Pane of Glass

“Today in hospitality, we go out and buy all these different components and bolt them together,” said Gilbert. “It’s a fragmented system.”

That fragmentation looks like this: door locks managed on one platform, HVAC on another, PMS and lighting on separate dashboards. The result has long been a burden on hotel operations, and ultimately – on the guest experience.

Bodhi’s manufacturer-agnostic platform changes everything. By connecting every system, device, and data point into one unified interface, Bodhi gives hoteliers a single source of truth across their properties. Engineers, operators, and managers all work from the same live data without switching screens or losing context.

It’s an approach that unlocks previously impossible guest personalization tactics, something that resonated with the wider panel.  

As Frank Pitzalis, SVP of Product Strategy for Agilysys, put it, “Personalization is the next luxury, and to unlock it, we need data that isn’t trapped in silos.”

Engineering Guest Satisfaction

Bodhi’s philosophy is built around a simple goal: every system should work before the guest ever walks in.

“We’re the only company that can guarantee nearly 100% guest satisfaction,” said Gilbert. “Because we know everything is working before the guest gets to the room.”

That guarantee comes from Bodhi SuperAgent, the platform’s AI-driven “virtual technician” that continuously tests, learns, and adjusts building systems in real time.

If a thermostat starts to drift, if a lock fails to respond, or if humidity spikes BodhiAI catches it instantly and guests never experience the fault (or go on to leave a bad review!).

From Data to Decisions: Talking to Your Building

The reality is this: most hotel teams today don’t need another dashboard, they need answers.

That’s the thinking behind BodhiGPT, a natural-language interface that allows operators to simply ask questions like “How’s my HVAC performing?, or “Which rooms had the most guest issues last night?”, and get instant, clear responses.

“We send operators a text, an email, even have conversations,” Gilbert explained. “You can actually ask your building how it’s doing.”

This really marks the next evolution in operational intelligence - not just gathering data but turning it into information and decisions that matter right now.

Anticipation As the New Luxury

Luxury has always been about being understood before asking.  

When a guest arrives at a Bodhi driven property, they receive a simple text, no app, no download, that lets them unlock their room, control temperature and lighting, or order food and beverage directly.

If they tell GuestGPT, “my room’s warm,” the system doesn’t just log a ticket, it adjusts the thermostat, confirms the fix, and alerts staff.

“Negative reviews at the end of a stay aren’t any good,” said Gilbert. “We get ahead of them at the very beginning by anticipating guest needs.”

Guests don’t need to notice the systems behind their comfort, they just remember how the experience made them feel.

As Carolyn Corda, Managing Director at Deloitte, noted during the discussion, “Guests don’t care what mechanics deliver personalization. They just care how it feels, whether they’re understood, seen, and effortlessly cared for.”

The result is anticipatory hospitality, experiences that feel effortless because the work has already been done.

Agentic AI: The Virtual Technician

And what about ‘agentic AI’? The panel moderator Gilad Berenstein described it as a “swarm” of bots working together like an invisible team.

That’s exactly how Bodhi already operates, with SuperAgents running quietly in the background, ensuring that each connected device, from locks to lighting to PMS integrations, performs flawlessly. It’s an invisible workforce, one that allows human hospitality to shine.

Hospitality, Reimagined for the AI Era

What this new era of hospitality technology makes clear is that AI is reinforcing, rather than reducing, the human aspect of our industry.

It’s the evolution from reactive to predictive; from fragmented to unified, from operational noise to operational confidence.

And in the end, the traveler is the one that wins - because every stay becomes smoother, more personalized, and more reliable.  

“Luxury is about getting it right the first time,” Berenstein concluded on stage. “The more AI can consolidate data and support anticipatory service, the more flawlessly we can deliver unforgettable experiences.”

And that’s exactly what Bodhi was built to do.

Contact us to discover how Bodhi is helping hotels anticipate, not react at here.

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