Part One: I Stopped Building Hotel Sales and Marketing Courses. I Started Building Experiences.

A funny thing happened this year.

I wasn’t planning to become an app developer. I wasn’t trying to build software. I was simply trying to solve teaching problems.

For years, I’d stand in front of hotel sales and marketing teams, explaining concepts such as displacement analysis, channel mix, competitive positioning, pricing strategy, and asset value. People understood the concepts.

Then Monday happened. They went back to work and suddenly those ideas became much harder to apply.

The challenge wasn’t understanding. The challenge was practice. And the old “mystery shopping” approach wouldn’t work.

That’s where AI completely changed how I think about learning.

Instead of asking, “How do I explain this better?” I started asking, “What if they could actually do it?” That question sent me down a rabbit hole I don’t think I’m climbing out of.

Today, almost every major lesson I teach has its own AI-powered learning experience.

Not because technology is cool. Because adults learn by making decisions.

The first experiment: Displacement Analysis

Revenue managers talk about displacement all the time. “Should we accept this group?” “Should we wait?” “What’s the opportunity cost?”

In class we teach the framework. Then I wanted something more.

So I built an AI coach for hotel sales.

Students work through a realistic scenario, make their own recommendation, and then receive coaching on how they approached the problem—not just whether they picked the “right” answer.

The goal isn’t memorizing formulas. It’s learning how experienced commercial leaders think.

Then came the Commercial MRI

One lesson inside ComLens teaches students how to conduct a deep commercial assessment.

Originally this required four lengthy AI prompts covering:

Product competitiveness
Pricing and distribution
Demand and segment mix
Guest value perception

It worked.

But it also took time.

So I built the Commercial MRI.

Instead of spending an hour assembling prompts, the report is generated automatically and becomes the starting point for strategy discussions.

The conversation shifts from creating information to interpreting it.

That’s where the real learning happens.

Every new class creates another experiment

As I teach, I notice friction.

Whenever I hear myself saying…

“This part is hard to visualize…”

…or…

“I wish everyone could practice this ten times…”

…I start wondering if AI can help.

Usually the answer is yes.

Sometimes that means a chatbot. Sometimes it’s an interactive exercise. Sometimes it’s a small web application.

I never know which until I start building. That’s become my new teaching philosophy.

Don’t just explain. Create experiences.

Don’t just lecture. Let people experiment.

Don’t just give answers. Create better questions.

The technology changes every month.

Good learning doesn’t.

In the next article I’ll show you some of the stranger things that came out of this little AI laboratory—including a hotel turnover calculator, a distribution strategy coach, a marketing budget simulator, and why I accidentally built far more software than I ever intended.

To learn and experience most of my stuff, sign up for the next ComLens Cohort – Commercial Fluency