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As the integration of artificial intelligence across industries and into critical infrastructure raises much debate and long-term uncertainty, the technology is already being embraced at almost every stage of running a business.

In the hotel space, AI is used for everything from answering guest queries with less need for human workers to offering dynamic prices. Room rates are adjusted based on demand that the technology monitors in real time, which maximizes profits for the hotel but often leaves guests feeling cheated or unable to expect stable pricing.

At the annual Skift Global Forum in New York on Sept. 23, Hilton Worldwide Holdings CEO Christopher Nassetta classified the growing use of AI in hotels as an “almost unstoppable” force that will continue to sweep across the industry in the coming years.

“It’s not going to stop”: Hilton CEO on the use of AI

“AI is relevant in the sense that it’s not going to stop,” Nassetta said to an audience of travel industry professionals. “Humans want efficiency [and] humans want their life to be easy. With technology, some are early adopters but eventually everyone gets there.”

Nassetta went on to say that across Hilton properties, the goal is for technology to streamline certain steps at the early stages, when customers reach out about potential or existing bookings through the various online channels.

In March 2026, the brand launched a digital AI concierge to serve guests who ask questions about the properties and their amenities.

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“I ultimately want to give customers what they want the way they want it, right?” Nassetta continued further. “And so if customers ultimately want to book through these agents, I want to make it really easy for them to be able to do that and make sure that the experience is a really good experience [..] while never losing sight of our core business which is the fulfillment side. How they get to us, and how that experience is because it’s all digital, matters a lot.”

The global Hilton portfolio is behind more than 9,400 hotel properties around the world.Shutterstock

How else is Hilton (and other hotel chains) using AI on your hotel booking

Nassetta said that a “direct relationship” with guests will always be the crucial last step toward leaving them with positive memories about an individual hotel and ultimately earning their loyalty. But AI will increasingly be leveraged to spot trends, learn about the person making the booking, and provide a more customized experience.

A recent survey from hospitality platform Mews, cited by Hotel Dive, revealed that approximately 51% of the 500 hotels polled in different parts of the world used AI in their day-to-day operations, while 98% used it episodically for specific tasks, between December 2025 and March 2026.

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“[AI] is going to deliver the best loyalty outcomes, the best pricing outcomes and, we think, the best experience outcomes,” Nassetta said.

“Because we have a direct relation, we know so much more about a customer and we can utilize AI in a world like today in a way that allows for customization at a massive scale.”

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Michael Burry built his reputation finding the cracks nobody else wanted to look for. He just aimed that same forensic instinct at the five companies most responsible for the AI buildout. His latest target is not a stock price or a valuation multiple. It is the fine print.

In a new Substack post, the investor behind “The Big Short” argues that Amazon, Meta Platforms, Alphabet, Microsoft and Oracle have quietly built up trillions of dollars in obligations that barely show up on their balance sheets, and that Wall Street has largely chosen not to notice.

Burry says hyperscalers are hiding $3 trillion in AI debt

Burry’s math starts with two categories most investors rarely think about. He estimates the five hyperscalers carry nearly $1.2 trillion in uncommenced lease commitments and more than $1.5 trillion in purchase commitments. Once special-purpose vehicles, guarantees and other contingent backstops are added in, he puts the combined total above $3 trillion, Stocktwits reported.

“These liabilities, I say, are, in essence, in hypergrowth mode,” Burry wrote, arguing they are expanding far faster than the companies carrying them.

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The core problem, in Burry’s framing, is a timing mismatch. Data centers typically take three to five years to build and often carry lease terms stretching 13 to 20 years, while the AI chips running inside them can see major shifts in power density and cooling requirements within just 12 to 18 months. That gap, he argues, leaves hyperscalers exposed if hardware architecture changes faster than the buildings around it, Stocktwits reported.

To make that point, Burry cited Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who has previously said he did not want the company to get stuck building massive infrastructure around a single generation of hardware. Burry framed that comment as validation that even hyperscalers recognize the risk of committing too much infrastructure to rapidly changing AI hardware.

The accounting fight behind the warning

Part of Burry’s argument centers on more than $400 billion in construction-in-progress assets sitting across the five companies. While still classified as construction-in-progress, those assets do not generate depreciation under GAAP because the projects have not yet entered service.

That structural quirk fits into a broader accusation Burry first raised last November, when he argued that hyperscalers were extending the useful life of Nvidia chips well beyond their realistic two-to-three-year replacement cycle. A move he said could understate industry-wide depreciation by roughly $176 billion between 2026 and 2028, according to CNBC.

He was specific about who that would hit hardest. By his estimate, Oracle’s earnings could end up overstated by roughly 26.9% and Meta’s by about 20.8% by 2028 if the accounting assumptions behind those extended depreciation schedules hold, according to CNBC.

Burry has continued building on that thesis in the months since, reiterating in August that the resulting shortfall could still reach roughly $176 billion across the same three-year window, even as some of his short positions tied to the argument came under significant pressure.

Michael Burry built his reputation finding the cracks nobody else wanted to look for.Astrid Stawiarz / Getty Images

Burry’s track record of betting against the AI trade

This latest post did not come out of nowhere. Burry disclosed in August that he was shorting Oracle at roughly $145 a share, citing the company’s ballooning debt load and long-term commitments. He described his AI shorts broadly as “a bit like shooting fish in a barrel,” adding that AI companies had gotten very fat and very large.

He paired that Oracle position with a larger short in Nebius Group at $211.77 a share, pointing to growing leverage risk tied to off-balance-sheet commitments across the tech and cloud sector more broadly, as reported by TheStreet.

Burry has also raised concerns about circular financing, arguing that capital moving among hyperscalers, AI labs and chipmakers could artificially reinforce demand and revenue in ways that make the whole ecosystem look healthier than the underlying economics justify.

Earlier this year, Burry went further, calling AI enthusiasm a kind of mass addiction after shorting Micron following a near 700% year-over-year run in the stock. His argument: hyperscalers are spending heavily because chip stocks keep rising, and chip stocks keep rising because hyperscalers keep spending. A feedback loop that looks like demand without necessarily being one, according to TheStreet.

What investors should take from the warning

Burry has been careful to frame this as a warning about downside risk rather than an allegation of fraud, telling readers that “when the music’s over, these off-balance sheet commitments become real liabilities very quickly.” A line meant to capture how fast impairments, termination costs and unused capacity could pile up if AI demand ever slows.

That warning arrives at an odd moment for the stocks it targets. Cloud growth remained strong across the hyperscalers last quarter, capital expenditures are expected to cross $1 trillion next year, and the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF was heading for a third consecutive month of gains even as Burry’s post circulated.

For investors, the gap between those two realities, strong reported growth on one side and Burry’s balance sheet forensics on the other, is likely to remain the central tension in the AI trade for as long as hyperscalers keep spending at this pace without the depreciation and liability questions being fully resolved.

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Zumiez built its business on a sneaker culture that didn’t exist when I was a kid.

In the early 1980s, while I grew up in a reasonably wealthy household, sneakers were something you purchased either at the beginning of the school year or when you wore out or outgrew your current pair.

The term “sneakerhead” wasn’t common yet, and while some sneakers (probably not the ones I wore) were cooler than others, they weren’t really a fashion statement yet. That cultural change, however, was coming; it just hadn’t reached Swampscott, Mass., quite yet.

“Most sneakerheads credit the advent of their subculture to the rise of athlete-endorsed shoes in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Converse’s Chuck Taylor All-Stars had dominated the basketball courts for decades — and brands like Puma and Adidas started to get in on the action,” according to National Geographic.

The explosive growth, however, traces back to 1985 and the emergence of Nike’s Air Jordan partnership with Michael Jordan.

“What transformed sneaker culture into a true phenomenon was the 1985 release of Nike’s Air Jordan 1s. In 1984, Michael Jordan was a talented rookie who had yet to play in a professional game. Despite that, Nike — better known then as a running shoe company — saw Jordan as the future of their brand and signed him to a five-year, $2.5 million endorsement deal,” the website reported.

Sneakerheads, sneaker collecting, performance-based sneakers, and regular old sneakers are different things. Consumers are still buying shoes, but increasingly buying shoes they perceive as necessary, useful, or versatile, while postponing discretionary purchases.

That has proven to be bad news for Zumiez.

Zumiez sees sneaker sales drop

Zumiez, which describes itself as a “leading specialty retailer of apparel, footwear, equipment and accessories for young men and women,” saw its net sales drop for the second quarter ended Aug. 1, 2026 by 2.5% to $209.0 million from $214.3 million in the second quarter ended Aug. 2, 2025. Comparable sales for the same period decreased 2.1%, according to an earnings release.

“Net loss in the second quarter of fiscal 2026 was $2.7 million, or $0.17 per share, compared to a net loss of $1 million, or $0.06 per share, in the second quarter of the prior fiscal year,” the company added.

CEO Rick Brooks blamed the declines at least partially on falling sneaker sales.

“Second quarter results came in below last year driven by weaker performance in the U.S., which was primarily driven by continued softness in footwear as well as lower traffic levels,” he said.

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The drop was not isolated to one quarter.

“The footwear category has been the most significant headwind, accounting for 70% of the total U.S. sales decline from the prior year through that timeframe. Footwear has been challenged since the second quarter of 2025, and the year-over-year comparisons get easier as we head into the fourth quarter of this year,” Brooks said during the chain’s second-quarter earnings call.

He made it clear that Zumiez was trying to correct the problem.

“We are certainly trying a lot of different things. And we have some things that are working to offset, but it is not working at a level that is able to deal with the big brands that are trending down,” he said.

The company plans to respond by working with footwear partners and trying to bring more unique products to its stores.

Zumiez has seen a dramatic drop in sneaker sales.Shutterstock

Zumiez is closing stores

CFO Christopher Work shared the company’s plans to close some underperforming stores.

“We plan to close approximately 16 stores during fiscal 2026, including 10 in North America and 6 internationally,” he said during the earnings call.

That’s actually an improvement over the 25 stores the company had planned to close previously.

Brooks noted the drop in transactions, which could be related to fewer customers visiting its stores. That trend has been unfolding for a while.

Traffic for the brand dropped while overall mall visits, where many Zumiez stores are located, grew.

“Shopping mall foot traffic continued to grow in July, with visits up 0.5% year over year at outlet malls, 4.3% at indoor malls, and 5.1% at open-air shopping centers — extending the sector’s positive momentum into the second half of the year,” according to Placer.ai.

Customers also spent more time at the mall.

“Visit duration grew at all three mall formats in July, reversing a decline that had persisted since February. Average visit durations were up 0.6% year over year at outlet malls in July, 0.2% at OASCs, and 2.7% at indoor malls,” the data showed.

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U.S. shoe sales are complicated

Shoe sales aren’t shrinking, but strengths in some areas have covered up weaknesses in others.

“The U.S. footwear industry delivered modest dollar growth during the first half of 2026, with total sales increasing +1%, compared to the same period last year,” according to Circana. “While consumers remained selective in their discretionary spending, higher average selling prices (ASP) continued to offset weaker demand reflected in a decline in units sold.”

Basically, people are buying the shoes they need for athletic and hobby reasons, but being more selective with other purchases.

“Performance footwear remained the industry’s standout growth engine in the first half, generating +6% dollar growth coupled with an increase in units sold. Running shoes continued to lead gains, with category dollar and unit sales both climbing +13%. Cross-training, golf, volleyball, and other activity-based categories also posted gains as consumers continued investing in products that support movement, wellness, and active lifestyles,” Circana shared.

RTM Nexus CEO Dominick Miserandino explained why these trends are bad for a lifestyle retailer that caters to teens.

“Parents will still replace the shoes their kids outgrow, but the second or third pair is easy to postpone. That is where Zumiez gets squeezed: The customer may still like the product, but liking it and needing it are two very different things when the family budget is tight,” he told TheStreet.

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