A Practical Field Guide · May 2026
A practical guide to honest assessment, confident adoption, and meaningful action.
Before we begin
Most people in the travel and safari industry know AI is coming for parts of their work. Few know exactly where to start, what to trust, or how to act without making things worse. This guide is written for operators, marketers and owners who are tired of breathless headlines and want a clear, honest path forward — one that respects the craft of hospitality, the rhythm of a season, and the fact that you still have a business to run today.
Where in my business is time being lost to repetitive work that AI could quietly absorb?
Which one process — if it were smarter, faster, or more consistent — would create the biggest ripple effect for my team and my guests?
Am I making space to learn and experiment with AI, or am I waiting until I'm forced to?
The roadrunner problem
New models drop weekly. Every platform you use is shipping AI features faster than release notes can describe them. It is genuinely overwhelming, and most of the anxiety isn't about technology — it's about the fear of falling behind.
What if you stopped chasing? You don't need to test every tool or read every paper. You need a quiet, repeatable practice for noticing what matters, ignoring what doesn't, and applying one or two ideas to the work in front of you. That is the whole game.
Updates inside HubSpot, Google, Microsoft and your booking platform are where AI is showing up first.
A single newsletter or podcast you actually read beats ten you don't. The Rundown AI (app.therundown.ai) is a great starting point.
A short, recurring window to read, try and reflect compounds faster than any binge of tutorials.
The pace of AI
ChatGPT reached 100M users in 2 months — faster than any consumer technology before it.
Model capability is roughly doubling every 6 months, compressing decades of progress into years.
Generative AI is the first general-purpose technology since the internet to touch every department.
Guests, partners and staff are using AI to plan, write and decide — whether you've adopted it or not.
Sources: Reuters, OpenAI usage reports, Stanford HAI Index 2025
The landscape
| Opportunities | Threats & Risks |
|---|---|
| AI-powered search as the new front door to travel planning | Data privacy risks from increased personal data collection |
| Hyper-personalised guest experiences at scale | Job disruption as AI automates routine front-line tasks |
| Streamlined reservations and cross-department communication | Shifts in traditional booking channels as guest behaviour changes |
| Smarter lead qualification and shorter lead-to-quote times | Shadow AI creating data, brand, and governance exposure |
| AI-driven pricing, forecasting, and capacity management | Over-reliance on AI eroding the human touch |
Sources: McKinsey & Company (2023); The Effects of Artificial Intelligence on Tourism Industry; Harvard Business Review, 2026.
The good
Compress the time it takes to do work you already do well. Drafts, summaries, research and admin become minutes, not hours.
Move faster on quotes, proposals and follow-ups. Respond to leads in the window where they're still warm.
Give every team member a thinking partner that's patient, available and tailored to their role.
Co-intelligence
Ethan Mollick's framework of co-intelligence reframes the relationship. AI is not a search engine, not a magic answer machine, and not a threat to be contained. It's a strange, fast-improving colleague — and the people who learn how to work alongside it consistently outperform those who don't.
The four principles below are the operating system.
Always invite AI to the table.
You are the human in the loop.
Treat AI as a collaborator, not an oracle.
Today's AI is the worst you will ever use.
Source: Ethan Mollick, Co-Intelligence (2024)
Co-Intelligence
Co-Intelligence is not just a concept — it is a practical formula. And like any formula, it only works when all three elements are present. Remove any one of these three elements and the quality of the outcome drops. Combine all three and you get something none of them can produce alone — output that is fast, accurate, deeply contextualised, and accountable.
Judgement, taste, context, accountability.
Your data, your guests, your brand, your season.
Models and platforms that turn intent into output.
The bad
Spending on AI is at an all-time high. Real, measurable returns are not. The gap between excitement and outcome is the most important number in this whole conversation — and it's not a tech problem.
| The statistic | What it tells us | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 85% of AI projects fail to deliver on their intended outcomes | The failure is almost never technical. Businesses know what AI can do — they just do not know why they are using it or what problem they are solving. | Gartner |
| Only 1 in 10 companies report significant impact from AI investment | The rest sit in a grey zone of partial adoption, unclear ROI, and growing fatigue. | McKinsey, 2023 |
| 60%+ use AI at work — but fewer than 25% of organisations have a formal AI strategy | This creates 'shadow AI' — tools being used without governance, alignment, or intent. | Microsoft, 2024 |
| Only 4% of businesses are considered AI-mature | Meaning they have integrated AI into their core operations in a way that delivers consistent and measurable value. | IBM, 2023 |
Why is this happening?
Adopting AI because competitors are doing it, not because there is a clearly defined problem to solve.
Resistance, uncertainty, and lack of training derail more AI implementations than technology ever will. People are not against AI — they are against change they do not understand.
When nobody owns the AI agenda internally, it defaults to no one. Projects stall, pilots never scale, and momentum quietly dies.
Tracking usage metrics rather than business outcomes. A tool being used does not mean it is delivering value. Activity is not results.
In cautious industries like travel and safari, the default response to uncertainty is delay. But delay without a plan is not a strategy — it is just a different kind of risk.
The ugly
Skills, fears and habits shape adoption more than any tool. Bring people in early, honestly.
Workflows, approvals and incentives must be redesigned around what AI now makes possible.
Leaders set the tone. If they don't use AI visibly, no policy or training will move the needle.
But don't worry
You don't need to overhaul your business or out-spend the giants. You need to adopt a handful of well-chosen practices, give your team room to try them, and build a small, steady rhythm of improvement. The companies that get this right look unremarkable from the outside — until you compare their results.
How companies get it right
Pick a real, recurring frustration and ask whether AI changes the answer. Skip everything else.
An internal AI lead — not a committee — owns experiments, learnings and the roadmap.
Short, role-specific sessions on the work people already do beat generic AI courses every time.
Hours saved, response times, conversion rates. If you can't see the dial move, change what you're doing.
AI handles the scaffolding so your team can spend more time on the things only humans can do.
We don't recommend disruption. We recommend flow.
— The GoFetch philosophy
The framework
What follows is not a textbook framework or a consultant's checklist. It is the approach we use at GoFetch — built from experience, refined through practice, and designed to be simple enough to actually use.
AI adoption cannot be delegated. It must be owned and championed at the top of the business. If leadership is not bought in, nothing below it will stick.
Start with a clearly defined business challenge or opportunity — not a technology. What is the specific problem you are trying to solve? Name it before you look at any tool.
Review the processes and data behind the problem. Establish where you are today and where you are falling short. AI will amplify what exists — make sure what exists is worth amplifying.
Identify tools, select the right solution, establish who needs access, and bring AI into your workflow. This is where the technology finally enters the conversation — not before.
Define, track, and measure business outcomes — not usage metrics. A tool being used is not a result. Value delivered is.
Name someone accountable, formalise approved tools, define how data is handled, and make AI a governed, business-wide commitment — not a free-for-all.
AI in practice
The tools on your laptop today, used 10× better.
Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot — when and why.
Native AI inside the systems you already pay for.
When to commission something bespoke — and when not to.
Already at your fingertips
The most accessible AI in your business is probably already sitting inside the tools your team uses every day.
Google and Microsoft — the two platforms that power most travel and safari businesses — have made AI a core part of their product strategy. They are building it directly into every tool you already use, and the pace of that development is accelerating fast.
Faster and easier to write — AI drafts, refines, and summarises your communications so your team spends less time staring at a blank screen.
Formulas that write themselves — no more hunting for the right formula. Just describe what you need and it is done.
Slides and visuals that look great without a designer in the room.
Calendars that organise themselves — scheduling, prioritising, and surfacing what needs attention.
The capability is there. The challenge is that most people continue to use these tools the way they always have — because old habits are comfortable, and because nobody has shown them what is now possible.
Action item
Awareness alone does not change behaviour. If you want your team to actually use these tools differently, someone needs to own that shift.
Our recommendation is simple: identify one person in your business and assign them as your AI Productivity Champion. Their role is not technical. It is practical and people-focused.
It does not need to be complicated. It just needs to be consistent. Over time, small improvements compound into a meaningful shift in productivity across the organisation.
General purpose AI
General purpose AI platforms are tools built to help with almost anything — writing, research, analysis, planning, summarising, building documents, answering questions, generating ideas. They are the closest thing to having a highly capable thought partner available to you around the clock.
| Platform | Best known for | Best suited for |
|---|---|---|
| Claude (Anthropic) | Thoughtful, nuanced writing and analysis | Long-form content, knowledge base building, SOPs, complex research, and situations where accuracy and tone matter |
| ChatGPT (OpenAI) | Versatility and broad capability | General business tasks, brainstorming, drafting, and teams who want a wide range of integrations |
| Gemini (Google) | Deep integration with Google Workspace | Teams who live in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Drive — Gemini works directly inside these tools |
| Copilot (Microsoft) | Deep integration with Microsoft 365 | Teams who live in Outlook, Word, Excel, and Teams — Copilot works directly inside these tools |
The right choice depends less on which is 'best' and more on where your team already works. And you do not need to pick just one — many businesses use a combination depending on the task.
Problems worth solving
| Problem | What it looks like today | What AI makes possible |
|---|---|---|
| Critical knowledge lives in people's heads | When your best person is unavailable, that expertise goes with them. | A structured, searchable knowledge base available to everyone, all the time. |
| Onboarding new team members takes too long | Inconsistent, time-consuming, dependent on who is available to train. | A structured onboarding programme that delivers a consistent experience every time. |
| Our SOPs live in someone's inbox | Processes exist but are undocumented or locked in the muscle memory of long-serving staff. | Clean, professional SOPs for every department and role, built from knowledge your team already has. |
| Guest and agent communication takes too long | Personalised communications are time-consuming to write and inconsistent in quality. | On-brand communications drafted in seconds — reviewed and sent by a human, not written from scratch. |
| We struggle to turn data into decisions | You have reports and feedback but no easy way to surface what actually matters. | AI analyses your data and presents findings in plain language so your team can decide faster. |
Your CRM and AI
Every meaningful interaction with a guest — enquiry, quote, booking, feedback — lives or dies in your CRM. That makes it the highest-leverage place to apply AI. Done well, it doesn't replace team members; it empowers them to do their best work.
At GoFetch, our platform of choice is HubSpot — not because it's perfect, but because it is genuinely user-friendly, lets us tailor processes to how we actually work, and is deeply committed to weaving AI into every layer of the platform.
CRM × AI
| The problem | The AI solution | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Critical knowledge lives in people's heads, not in the business | Knowledge Base + Breeze AI | A centralised knowledge base with instant, contextual answers for every team member. Summarises contact and engagement data so your team has context before every call or follow-up. |
| Meetings happen but momentum gets lost | AI Note Taker + Smart Deal Progression | Captures meetings into structured summaries with action items, linked to the right deal or contact. Suggests next steps, follow-ups and CRM updates for the rep to review. |
| Our guest and agent data is thin and unusable | Data Agent | Builds fuller profiles by pulling together information that already exists across your communications — structured and attached to the right records automatically. |
| Enquiries come in after hours and go unanswered until morning | Customer Agent | Handles inbound enquiries when your team is offline, keeping conversations moving until a human takes over. Also supports consultants during business hours with routine enquiries. |
Where to look
Custom projects
Don't run before you can walk. Custom AI projects are powerful, but they reward businesses that have already adopted the basics. If your team isn't using general-purpose AI well yet, a bespoke build is unlikely to fix it. When the foundation is in place, the opportunities below become very real.
| The opportunity | The problem it solves | What it makes possible |
|---|---|---|
| Decision Intelligence | You have data — occupancy reports, guest feedback, booking trends — but no easy way to turn it into confident, timely decisions. | AI-assisted insights that go beyond dashboards, surfacing what matters most in plain language so your team can act with confidence. |
| Rate Distribution | Rates exist across multiple documents and formats — making it slow and error-prone to distribute them accurately. | A structured, accurate, and always-current rate distribution system that ensures the right information reaches the right people, every time. |
| Booking Availability | Getting accurate availability to agents and guests quickly is one of the biggest friction points in the lead-to-quote process. | AI that makes booking availability seamlessly accessible — reducing back-and-forth and shortening the time from enquiry to confirmed quote. |
| Partner Empowerment | Trade partners spend too much time chasing rates, availability, content, and answers — creating unnecessary load on your reservations team. | A dedicated AI-powered resource that puts everything a partner needs in one place — available around the clock, without your team fielding every request manually. |
In closing
Travel and safari are, at their core, businesses of human connection — of being known, looked after, surprised, moved. AI will not replace any of that. What it can do, in the right hands, is clear away the noise and admin that stands between your team and the guests they're trying to serve. The work in front of us is not to deploy more technology. It is to use the technology we already have with care, courage and craft — so that the human parts of this industry can shine brighter than ever.