Everything AI in Travel chats digital identities with Robert Cole

<p>In this episode of Everything AI &amp; Travel, I sit down with Robert Cole (Rock Cheetah) — Cornell hotel grad, ex-Four Seasons marketing leader, Sabre/Travelocity-era hotel distribution veteran, and a longtime Phocuswright analyst.<br>We get practical on what “AI readiness” really means for travel businesses:<br>Why digital identity becomes the foundation for the agentic world<br>The difference between traveler identity vs hospitality entity identity (hotel ≠ just a building…)<br>Why “standards” are hard in travel (and why the tech world solved this decades ago)<br>How Robert uses Claude / Gemini / OpenAI (and his “reasoning gauntlet” to rip drafts apart)<br>What small operators should do now (security, schema, sources of truth…) before agents arrive<br>If you’re a hotelier, tour operator, DMO, or travel tech builder trying to understand what’s coming next — this is one to save.<br>👇 Subscribe for more AI-in-travel conversations<br>💬 Comment: what’s your biggest worry about agents + trust?</p>