Tech Explained: Marriott Advances Technology Migration as AI Strategy Moves Into Deployment | in Simple Terms

Marriott International is accelerating one of the most ambitious technology overhauls in its history, committing $1.1 billion in investment spending in 2026, with more than one-third directed toward digital and technology transformation. During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call, CEO Anthony Capuano said the bulk of that technology investment is focused on replatforming three core systems: its property management system, central reservations infrastructure and loyalty platform. All three have moved from development into deployment, with rollouts planned at what executives described as “a meaningful number” of hotels this year.

Behind those migrations is a broader architectural shift. Marriott is moving core platforms to cloud-native environments designed around unified guest data, API-first integrations and real-time analytics pipelines. Executives have previously described the strategy as building an “agentic mesh,” a shared intelligence layer intended to support AI agents across marketing, operations, customer service and revenue optimization. The goal is not just modernization, but interoperability — creating a data foundation that allows generative AI tools and automation layers to operate consistently across brands and geographies.

Capuano characterized AI as a long-term opportunity that could reshape how hotels acquire, serve and retain guests. “We see AI as an opportunity to potentially redefine the customer acquisition paradigm that has governed our industry for the past several decades,” he said, while cautioning that the technology remains early in its practical application.

The emphasis on unified guest data sits at the core of that strategy. Marriott Bonvoy remains one of the largest loyalty ecosystems in hospitality, and the ongoing loyalty replatforming is designed to support faster innovation and more advanced personalization. By consolidating identity, transactional and behavioral data within cloud-native architecture, Marriott is laying the groundwork for AI capabilities that operate from a consistent, enterprise-wide source of truth rather than fragmented property-level systems.

The company’s distribution and commercial strategy is evolving alongside its core systems. Last summer, Marriott introduced MARRIOTT MEDIA, a media network that allows brands to engage travelers across digital and in-hotel touchpoints using first-party data. While media networks have become common in retail, they remain relatively new in hospitality. Marriott’s initiative reflects the growing view that hotel companies sit on valuable, consented guest data that can support targeted messaging and partnerships throughout the travel journey. The effectiveness of such a network depends heavily on the quality and interoperability of the underlying data infrastructure, reinforcing the rationale behind the broader system overhaul.

Operational technology initiatives are also advancing at the property level. In 2023, Marriott signed a Master Service Agreement with Shiji that expands the deployment of Infrasys Cloud POS across multiple regions. A cloud-based point-of-sale platform provides greater consistency in transaction data and integration across brands, particularly for food and beverage operations. In parallel, Marriott selected SevenRooms as its preferred restaurant technology partner, standardizing on a guest experience and retention platform that is already live in more than two dozen countries across brands such as W Hotels and The Ritz-Carlton. SevenRooms’ integration into the broader Marriott ecosystem allows dining data to inform loyalty engagement and guest profiling, an increasingly important component of total guest spend analytics.

Mobile ordering and digital F&B workflows are also part of the modernization effort. At Marriott Executive Apartments, Dubai Creek, for example, the deployment of IRIS’s mobile dining platform illustrates how properties are using digital ordering tools to drive in-room dining revenue and streamline service. While individual property initiatives may appear tactical, collectively they reflect a portfolio-wide shift toward digitized, data-rich operational environments that can feed into centralized analytics and AI models.

The competitive landscape underscores why Marriott is investing at this scale. Wyndham has publicized its use of AI agents in guest service workflows, working with partners including OpenAI, Salesforce and Oracle. Choice Hotels has discussed internal AI copilots to improve development velocity and employee onboarding. Accor has integrated conversational AI capabilities into parts of its booking ecosystem. Across the sector, large operators are pairing AI experimentation with cloud migrations, recognizing that automation and generative tools deliver limited value without clean, unified data and flexible architecture.

For Marriott, the complexity is amplified by scale. With more than 8,500 properties and a predominantly franchise model, rolling out new central reservations, PMS and loyalty systems requires coordination across owners, brands and geographies. Executives have characterized the transition as a multiyear effort, with early deployments informing broader expansion in 2026 and beyond. The replatforming is as much about long-term resilience and interoperability as it is about near-term feature gains.

The strategic through line is clear. Marriott is building a cloud-native backbone capable of supporting AI agents, media monetization, retail-style personalization and standardized F&B technology across its global portfolio. The agentic mesh concept signals an ambition to move beyond isolated pilots toward enterprise-wide intelligence that can operate across commercial, operational and guest-facing domains.

For hotel decision makers, the takeaway is not simply that Marriott is investing heavily in AI. It is that AI is being embedded within a broader architectural reset that spans reservations, loyalty, POS, restaurant technology and media. Whether that integrated approach delivers measurable gains in productivity, guest engagement and owner economics will become more apparent as system migrations reach scale. What is already evident is that the competitive battleground among global hotel groups has shifted from incremental digital enhancements to foundational platform transformation.

Related