The International Luxury Hotel Association (ILHA) has expanded the agenda for INSPIRE 2026, its flagship luxury hospitality conference, with a direct focus on AI's measurable return on investment and the technology underpinning wellness and guest-experience strategy. The event runs December 15–17 at the JW Marriott Bonnet Creek Resort & Spa in Orlando.
The AI ROI Session
The session most likely to draw operator attention is "AI at Scale: Building the Business Case for Hospitality," which puts three major enterprise players at the same table. Rodney Linville, Global Head of Information Technology at Nobu Hospitality, and Shane O'Flaherty, Global Director of Travel, Transportation and Hospitality at Microsoft, will join Neha Jaitpal, Global General Manager of Honeywell's Hospitality Vertical, for a candid assessment of where AI deployments are generating real returns, where pilots are stalling before reaching operational scale, and what organizational conditions are required to move from proof-of-concept to enterprise rollout. ILHA President Barak Hirschowitz will moderate. For operators weighing cloud-native AI investments in areas such as dynamic pricing, automated guest communications, and predictive maintenance, the session addresses the build-versus-buy calculus that is increasingly shaping hotel technology roadmaps.
Beyond the AI Headline
The agenda additions extend well beyond AI. A session titled "The Science of Prevention, Performance and Longevity in Luxury Wellness" brings together executives from Hyatt and Starwood Hotels alongside Karlie Intlekofer, Global Research Scientist at Matrix Fitness, to examine how data-driven wellness programming is becoming a differentiator for luxury properties competing on amenity depth. For operators investing in spa and fitness technology — from biometric tracking to personalized longevity protocols — the session signals that wellness is evolving from a revenue center into a retention and loyalty mechanism.
WorldVue President and COO Robert Grosz leads "Measure What Matters: Why Human Connection Is Your Greatest Amenity," a session that will likely address how in-room technology, connectivity infrastructure, and digital touchpoints can be calibrated to support rather than replace face-to-face hospitality. A third panel, featuring executives from Marriott International, Nikki Beach Hotels & Resorts, and The Boca Raton, tackles how luxury brands are restructuring guest-experience strategy around experiential differentiation rather than physical product alone.
Event-tech vendor Encore, ILHA's exclusive AV partner across all three conference stages, will also present on AI-driven connectivity planning for high-stakes luxury events — a nod to the growing complexity of bandwidth and production requirements as conferences themselves become technology showcases.
The conference's previously announced opening lineup includes a fireside chat with Tina Edmundson, President of Luxury at Marriott International, and Carolyne Doyon, President and CEO of Club Med North America and Caribbean. Taken together, the confirmed speakers represent a roster drawn from the ownership, brand, and technology-vendor tiers of the luxury segment — a cross-section that reflects how deeply integrated hospitality tech decisions have become with asset strategy and brand positioning.
For operators tracking hotel AI adoption trends or evaluating enterprise wellness and guest-experience platforms, INSPIRE 2026 offers a concentrated peer benchmark. Registration is open at ilha.org/inspire/register.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
