Janette Roush

AI strategy for the business of travel.

25+ years in travel, from theater ticketing in the 1990s to leading AI strategy for international tourism marketing. Janette started experimenting with AI the week ChatGPT launched and committed to trying something new with it every day at work. That daily practice became a career pivot — and the Agents of Change program, where she shares the tools and workflows her team uses at Brand USA so the industry can put them to work. She also serves as an expert advisor to the European and North American cohorts of AI Opener for Destinations, Group NAO’s program for destination organizations putting AI strategy into practice.

Two ideas Janette is known for in the travel industry

Destination as a Service

As AI systems begin to answer travelers directly, destinations have a new job to do. Janette frames it as two parts: a verification layer, where AI checks claims against the local authority, and content portability, where a destination's first-person storytelling is made machine-readable so AI systems can use it.

“We're shifting from only being a creator of content to also being a steward of data. We still need to make the content — that's what feeds the systems.”

AI as the operating system of business

Janette's daily practice reshaped how she works, and it points to where the whole industry is heading. The shift she describes is from using AI in a separate window to doing the actual work inside it.

“AI isn't just a thing that lives inside a separate chat window that you go to ask questions to. It is now the operating system of business.”
Most of us use AI. Few of us work inside of it. That's the shift.

Selected work

Bring AI in tourism to your stage

Janette speaks to industry partners and stakeholders about putting AI to work in tourism. Speaking is arranged through Brand USA.