Let me start with a confession. I have purposely avoided talking about AI.

Not because I don’t understand it. I started my career as a technologist. I was coding while some of you were still figuring out how to attach a JPEG.

But here we are again. The industry has discovered AI, and suddenly everyone’s a futurist with a Canva subscription and a mild God complex.

It’s giving déjà vu.

Remember when we acted like websites were optional? When social media was a “fad”? When we built entire strategic plans around QR codes like they were portals to the underworld?

We do this every single time.

Technology doesn’t sneak up on tourism. Tourism just refuses to look up until the machine is already doing the job better.

And now we’re shocked that AI is moving too fast. No, friend. It’s not moving too fast. You just didn’t want to read the syllabus when it was boring.

The truth is, AI isn’t new. The only thing new is how quickly everyone’s pretending they’ve been using it forever. The same people who still can’t figure out how to export a PDF are suddenly “leveraging advanced generative workflows.”

If tourism moved as fast as tourism talks about moving fast, we’d be hosting conferences on Mars by now.

Let me put you on game: When you’re trying to catch up, you’re not innovating. You’re updating your software. And innovation is the one thing you can’t fake, automate, or outsource.

So maybe the real artificial intelligence is us, pretending we didn’t see this coming.

I’m not mad about the tools. I’m mad about the timing. Because this industry doesn’t do “ready.” We do “react.” We wait until the water is rising before we start learning how to swim, and then we call it progress. And we have bigger ‘problems’ to deal with, but, you know – shiny!

AI isn’t moving too fast. We’re just moving too late.

And the worst part? We’ll still hold a panel about it next year, with a title like “The Future is Now,” as if it hasn’t been here the whole time, sipping its drink and waiting for us to notice.

We are addicted to discovering what we should have been preparing for. And every new technology just exposes that we haven’t built the muscles for curiosity.

So if you really want to get ahead, here’s what you can do:

Learn it before you launch it. If you can’t explain what the machine is doing, you probably shouldn’t hand it your data, your audience, or your brand voice. The people winning with AI right now are not smarter than you. They just started paying attention earlier.

Treat it like an intern, not a messiah. AI can fetch, summarize, and brainstorm. It can give you options, but not direction. You are the strategist. It is the assistant. Don’t let the intern run the show.

Future-proof the human part. What can’t be automated? Empathy. Context. Culture. The emotional pulse of a destination. Build there. Always there.

AI will change the way we work, but it doesn’t have to change why we do it.

Because by the time it’s trending, it’s already too late to lead. So stop waiting for the “perfect time” to start experimenting. The perfect time is never. The point is to move while everyone else is still making panel topics about it.

AI isn’t replacing creativity. It’s revealing who was faking it.

And if you’re a storyteller, strategist, or leader, this is your moment. Machines can produce. Only you can provoke.

So no, I’m not scared of the robots. I’m scared of what happens when we stop thinking for ourselves.

I’m Jenn Barbee, and this is my love letter to everyone who keeps saying, “We’re just not ready yet.” You never are. That’s the point. 🖤