The Tourism AI Podcast

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Amy McInnis has spent about 17 years at Tourism Saskatchewan, starting as a marketing assistant and now leading marketing and communications as Vice President. Peter Pilarski talks with Amy about what it takes to lead AI adoption across a provincial tourism organization when you are not the most technical person in the room.
Amy describes how AI went from a side conversation at national tables to a leadership priority within about a year and a half, and how her team moved from dabbling in Copilot to creating agents and working through large data sets to make better marketing decisions. She explains why momentum came once the team picked two or three projects, formed a working group and made a plan, and why she is joining every project team herself.

Topics in this episode:
→ Career advice for tourism marketers: say yes, and stay a generalist
→ Moving a team from early experiments to agents
→ Why every division has a role in AI adoption
→ AI champions inside the team, and working closely with Research
→ How a provincial organization can help small operators keep up

Guest: Amy McInnis, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Tourism Saskatchewan
Host: Peter Pilarski, Founder, Tourism AI Network; President, CIPR Communications

Read the full blog here [HYPERLINK]. (optional)

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This podcast was recorded using Riverside.FM – the platform we trust for studio-quality remote recordings. With local tracks, HD video, and easy guest access, Riverside makes it simple to create pro-level podcasts from anywhere.

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#AIinTourism #TourismAI #AIAdoption #DMO #DestinationMarketing #TourismIndustry #TourismSaskatchewan #TourismLeadership

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Dane Swanson analyzes guest feedback for a living. As Guest Experience Analyst & AI Integration Strategist at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Teton Village, Wyoming, he turns large volumes of guest data into reporting for senior leadership. He is also one of the resort's AI champions.
Peter Pilarski talks with Dane about what AI adoption looks like inside a working ski resort. This spring the resort's CEO set up an AI task force with one rule: no senior leaders at the table, only front-line staff. Dane explains how that group got started, how he cut a one-hour weekly executive report to about 20 seconds using Copilot, Office Scripts and Power Automate, and why a person still checks every number.

Topics:
Building an AI task force from the front line
Turning an hour of weekly reporting into seconds
Training staff who learn in different ways, and the knowledge library Dane is planning
Working with ADHD while the tools change every month
Why new technology can free staff up for more guest interaction, and why guests don't always see it that way

Guest: Dane Swanson, Guest Experience Analyst, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort
Host: Peter Pilarski, Founder, Tourism AI Network; President, CIPR Communications

Read the full blog here.

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This podcast was recorded using Riverside.FM – the platform we trust for studio-quality remote recordings. With local tracks, HD video, and easy guest access, Riverside makes it simple to create pro-level podcasts from anywhere.

Want to launch your own? Try Riverside ⁠here⁠.

#AIinTourism #TourismAI #AIAdoption #GuestExperience #SkiIndustry #TourismIndustry #MicrosoftCopilot #Neurodiversity

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Peter Pilarski, Founder, Tourism AI Network; President, CIPR Communications, talks with Kendel Lavallee, Director of AI Adoption and Visibility at Tourism AI Network and a finalist for Woman of the Year in AI at the 2026 Stevie Awards for Women in Business. Neither of them calls themselves a technical person, and that turns out to be the point. The tools now run on plain language, good instructions and judgment, and the work is shifting from doing tasks to designing loops and approving what comes out.

Topics covered:- Why curiosity, judgment and agency matter more than a technical background- How agentic AI came together, from chatbots and reasoning models to the harness- The difference between a task and a loop, and where agents fit inside one- What has to be in place first: a team account, an AI policy, a knowledge base and written processes- Field notes from tourism training rooms, and why confidence can dip as AI use grows

Read the full blog here.

Follow Tourism AI Network:
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This podcast was recorded using Riverside.FM – the platform we trust for studio-quality remote recordings. With local tracks, HD video, and easy guest access, Riverside makes it simple to create pro-level podcasts from anywhere.

Want to launch your own? Try Riverside ⁠here⁠.

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Did you know we offer a free AI Minute Snippet for your organization's newsletter? Give your members valuable AI insights without adding work for your team. Partner with us to add high-quality, thought-provoking AI content to your newsletter - for free! Email info@tourismainetwork.com to learn more.

Kate Colley co-owns Hatch Hospitality with her husband, a chef and culinary consultant. Her own background is marketing, communications, branding and media relations, including ten years with Four Seasons Hotels in Vancouver and Whistler and the launch of Naramata Inn at the start of the pandemic. She joins Peter Pilarski to talk about how a two-person business uses AI, where it belongs in hospitality and where it does not, and why she has joined Tourism AI Network's Expert Advisory Network.

What we cover:
Running Claude and ChatGPT against each other, and what each one is better at
Why the back office is where AI earns its place: menus, payroll, schedules, SOPs, newsletters
The reluctance Kate hears from chefs, and what changes the first time someone tries it
Using AI as a teacher, and knowing your own work well enough to tell it when it is wrong
Where the existential risk conversation sits next to the risks an operator controls

Kate Colley, Co-owner, Hatch Hospitality.
Peter Pilarski, Founder, Tourism AI Network; President, CIPR Communications.

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This podcast was recorded using Riverside.FM – the platform we trust for studio-quality remote recordings. With local tracks, HD video, and easy guest access, Riverside makes it simple to create pro-level podcasts from anywhere.

Want to launch your own? Try Riverside ⁠here⁠.

#AIinTourism #TourismAI #AIAdoption #Hospitality #TourismIndustry #CulinaryTourism #SmallBusinessAI

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Did you know we offer a free AI Minute Snippet for your organization's newsletter? Give your members valuable AI insights without adding work for your team. Partner with us to add high-quality, thought-provoking AI content to your newsletter - for free! Email info@tourismainetwork.com to learn more.

Season 4 opens with Peter Pilarski and Kendel Lavallee back from the summer break, working through what changed whilethe industry was busy hosting. Peter names AI burnout as real, for practitioners and for the DMO leader trying to learn AI on top of a full job, and makes the case for pacing yourself. The two then trace how requests to Tourism AI Network have shifted from training toward building: Build Sprints, packaged tourism workflows, and version one of TourismOps AI, the reportingtool built with the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association. Peter also previews the season's guest lineup, including members of TAIN's Expert Advisory Network.

The back half turns to Google. Kendel walks through the new travel features in AI Mode, including hotel booking through themajor chains and OTAs and what she found testing it on smaller properties, and Peter connects Google's Ask for Me feature to a near future where AI agents phone businesses for quotes. The episode closes with a family trip to Japan planned and navigated inside a Claude project.

In this episode:
Why AI burnout is real, and how to paceadoption
The shift from "teach me" to"build it for me"
What agentic AI looks like in operations,marketing, and HR
Google AI Mode's new travel and hotelbooking features
Voice agents, speed to lead, and keepingyour data ready

Hosts: Peter Pilarski, Founder, Tourism AI Network; President, CIPR Communications. Kendel Lavallee, Director of AI Adoption and Visibility, Tourism AI Network.

Read the full blog here [HYPERLINK].

Follow Tourism AI Network:
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⁠X (Twitter)⁠
⁠Facebook⁠
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⁠Website⁠

This podcast was recorded usingRiverside.FM – the platform we trust for studio-quality remote recordings. With local tracks, HD video, and easy guest access, Riverside makes it simple to create pro-level podcasts from anywhere.

Want to launch your own? Try Riverside here.
#AIinTourism #TourismAI #AIAdoption #DMO#TourismIndustry #Hospitality #GoogleAIMode #AIAgents