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·Hass Dhia

The Organic Growth Paradox: When AI Adoption Meets Human Connection

AI adoptionorganic growthbrand buildinghospitalityrestaurant marketing

The travel industry's most blunt executive dropped a warning shot this week. "Vibe coding" - that's what Agoda CEO Omri Morgenshtern calls standard programming now. His prediction: 98% of engineers will work this way soon. Those who don't? They'll be looking for new jobs.

A hand-drawn illustration showing a fork in the road - one path with robots and automation symbols, the other with human figures and conversation bubbles

The AI Imperative

Morgenshtern's comments at Skift's Megatrends event weren't just about coding. He outlined a complete organizational transformation where AI workflows become non-negotiable. Agoda is building specialized bots for payments, search, and customer support - each optimized before integration into a unified customer experience.

But here's where it gets interesting: the company plans to advertise within large language model platforms like ChatGPT. Any platform with significant audience reach becomes a potential channel. This isn't a defensive play. It's positioning for a world where customers start their travel search inside an AI interface, not a browser.

The implicit threat? Declining performance marketing is inevitable as AI matures. Morgenshtern sees it coming even if the impacts aren't evident yet.

An illustration of a travel booking interface merging with AI chat bubbles, showing the convergence of search and conversation

The Wendy's Twitter Alumni Network

Meanwhile, in a parallel universe, Dave's Hot Chicken just hired Brandon Rhoten as CMO. His job: brand marketing, creative strategy, digital engagement, and media. Standard CMO territory.

What makes this notable is Rhoten's background. He spent six years at Wendy's leading creative and social strategy during the era when the chain rewrote the rules for fast-food advertising. That snarky Twitter voice that made Wendy's culturally relevant? Rhoten helped build it.

Before joining Dave's, Rhoten served as global CMO at Potbelly and ran marketing at advertising platform GroundTruth - which had worked with Dave's Hot Chicken. The chain clearly knew what it was getting.

The contrast with Morgenshtern's automation-first vision couldn't be sharper. Dave's is betting that the thing that scales isn't AI workflows but authentic brand voice. The kind of organic growth that made a parking lot pop-up into a 200-plus location phenomenon.

A stylized illustration of a hot chicken sandwich surrounded by social media hearts and retweets, showing viral organic growth

The Saudi Experiment

Saudi Arabia offers an interesting middle case. The kingdom hit 122 million visitors in 2025 - a 5% increase - with tourism spending reaching $81 billion. Their Vision 2030 target: 150 million visitors annually, doubling tourism's GDP contribution from 5% to 10%.

The strategy mixes megaprojects (Neom, Red Sea Global, AlUla) with religious tourism (30 million annual Umrah pilgrims by 2030) and mega events (2027 Asian Cup, 2030 World Expo, 2034 FIFA World Cup).

But there's a structural problem. Nearly 80% of the 362,000 new hotel rooms in development are luxury or upscale. The backbone of that 150-million target - domestic families and religious pilgrims - needs mid-scale and budget options. The engineering is impressive. The market alignment is questionable.

This is what happens when growth becomes a top-down directive rather than emerging from market signals.

An illustration showing luxury hotel towers next to smaller budget accommodations, highlighting the supply imbalance

The Real Question

Two theories of growth are competing in real-time across these industries:

The Agoda model: Automate everything. Optimize relentlessly. The workers who adapt survive; those who don't are replaced. This works when your product is fundamentally transactional - price sensitivity remains critical for leisure travelers, as Morgenshtern himself notes.

The Dave's model: Build authentic connection. Find people who understand cultural relevance. Let organic momentum compound. This works when your product is experiential - when the vibe matters as much as the value.

Most businesses aren't purely one or the other. The interesting question is which elements of your operation benefit from automation and which require human touch.

Morgenshtern is probably right that AI adoption is non-negotiable for travel companies. But he'd likely also agree that no amount of AI optimization can manufacture the organic cultural moment that turns a hot chicken concept into a movement.

The paradox: you need both. The companies that figure out where the line sits will outperform those who pick one lane.

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