Hospitality is entering an era where artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere, but meaning is nowhere. Across the industry, leaders are being told that AI will fix labor shortages, streamline operations, and transform the guest experience. Yet the reality on the ground feels very different: fragmented systems, disconnected data, and technology that often creates more friction than it removes.
At the 2026 Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC), David Poprawka, Innovation Strategist at Infor Hospitality, offered a refreshingly honest perspective. AI isn’t valuable simply because it exists. It’s valuable because it has intent. At the center of his message was the “Architecture of Intent”, a framework that is quickly becoming one of the most important for hospitality leaders evaluating AI investments.
The problem: AI without purpose
Poprawka opened with a story that resonated across the room. After checking into a hotel late at night, exhausted, he called the front desk for assistance, only to be met by an AI voice assistant that tried to upsell him a loyalty program before connecting him to a human. It’s a moment many travelers have experienced—technology that interrupts instead of assists. The lesson is simple. AI without purpose becomes a decoration, or worse, a liability.Pillar 1: Intent—defining what AI should care about
Before asking what AI can do, hotels must first decide what it should be allowed to care about. These priorities might include:
- Human interaction
- Operational efficiency
- Brand standards
- Guest recognition
- Sustainability
Without a clear answer, AI becomes a collection of disconnected features rather than a coherent system that supports the hotel’s mission. This is the first pillar: purpose driven intelligence.
Pillar 2: Unified data—the doorway to intelligence
Hospitality doesn’t suffer from a lack of data. It suffers from data that doesn’t show up when it matters. Front desk agents can’t see guest insights. Banquet teams can’t see standards. Housekeepers can’t see context.
Poprawka calls the unified data layer the “Portico”—the architectural threshold that allows intelligence to enter the building. Without this doorway, AI stays abstract. With it, AI becomes operational.
Pillar 3: Context—understanding the language of the house
Every hotel has its own rules, workflows, escalation paths, and brand expectations. AI must understand this shared “language” to act meaningfully.
This is where many AI projects fail. They assume that intelligence is universal, when in reality, hospitality is deeply contextual. The language of the house ensures that AI behaves like a member of the team, not an outsider.
The reveal: You still haven’t built an AI agent
Even with intent, data, and language, you still haven’t built an AI agent.
And that’s the point.
The agent—the chatbot, the automation, the augmented reality (AR) overlay is only 5% of the work. The foundation is the other 95%.
This is the opposite of how most vendors approach AI, and it’s why the Architecture of Intent is resonating with operators who are tired of hype and hungry for clarity.
The future: Intelligence that appears in the moment
Poprawka explored a bold question: What if intelligence appeared directly in the worker’s field of view?
This is where AR enters the conversation—not as a gimmick, but as a solution to the last mile problem of data access.
In practice, this could mean:
- A front desk agent greeting a guest and instantly seeing VIP preferences.
- A banquet team receiving real time validation of table setups.
- A housekeeper identifying missing items or triggering maintenance traces automatically.
This is intelligence that supports people, not replaces them.
The call to action
Poprawka ended with a challenge: Pick just one problem—and do something about it.
In a world overwhelmed by AI noise, the Architecture of Intent offers a grounded, operationally realistic path forward—an approach that Infor™ is putting into practice. It’s not about building agents. It’s about building meaning.
Want the full story? Access the complete HITEC session recording to learn more about the Architecture of Intent.
This article is part of a three piece HITEC series. Discover how AR solves hospitality’s last mile problem in “What if?” and why innovation starts with a single bold question in “Moonshot mindset”.