Agentic AI and Emotional Connection with Noha Abdalla, CMO of Choice Hotels

Full transcript⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Watch this interview on YouTube⁠⁠⁠ — “Sometimes when you get to a fork in the road and you have to decide, am I going to stay in this job or take this new job? … It can feel like the weight of the world on your shoulders to make that decision,” says Noha Abdalla, CMO of Choice Hotels. “[But] each path is going to lead you somewhere else and you're going to learn something new. And so take the burden off a little bit or the weight of that decision off and pick something and learn from it.” That philosophy has carried Noha from consulting to the American Red Cross, from Animal Planet to Hilton, and now to leading marketing across 22 brands and millions of room nights at Choice. Along the way, she’s seen firsthand how marketing builds trust, not just bookings, and how AI is transforming the creative process. Today on Building Better CMOs, Noha talks with MMA Global CEO Greg Stuart about the challenges of hospitality marketing, the decision to bring in Keegan-Michael Key as brand ambassador, and her team’s experiments with agentic AI to personalize at scale. They also discuss the role of mentorship, lessons from running a franchise business, and why marketers must champion emotional connection and trust at every step of the customer journey. This episode was produced and edited by Eric Johnson from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LightningPod.fm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Building Better CMOs in your podcast app⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Rate & review the podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Links: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Noha's LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Greg's LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠