SIERRA WANTS TO TALK TO YOU
Published in the March 28, 2026 edition.
“Where is the smoke coming from in Mammoth Lakes? Are there mountain hikes with good views? Are snow tires required?”
These are some of the key questions asked on “Sierra,” the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Mammoth Lakes Tourism (MLT) launched last August.
Since its debut, the chatbot has had 960 users, a number MLT Senior Marketing Manager Samantha Lindberg assured would increase during a presentation last Wednesday to the MLT board.
“We just assume this number will continue to grow and grow,” she said.
The chatbot, generated by the AI company Guide Geek, has the added benefit of increasing social media responses by 87% and reducing operational staff workload by handling repetitive questions.
“Sierra” comes alongside a push from MLT to integrate AI into its governing and marketing strategies. It’s an effort that stems from the fear of being left behind.
“AI isn’t coming, it’s already here,” said Amanda Moul, vice president of the advertising agency Shipyard. “The stakes are high. If someone looks up what ski destination in California I should go to and Tahoe pops up, we certainly don’t want that to happen.”
When The Sheet asked ChatGPT Thursday morning if someone should visit Mammoth or Tahoe, the bot said Mammoth has better snow, but Tahoe has a better overall experience.
That’s because AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT pull from a multitude of online sources, including Trip Advisor, Reddit, and Substack, then summarize the information. This can mean that fewer people turn to MLT’s website for local infomation.
“Fifty-eight percent of searches and AI overviews are no longer clicking through to a website,” Moul said. “We want to be the one discovered when AI is referencing a source, so users do come through and click to us.”
Her suggestion was to structure online content so a chatbot could extract clear, stand alone answers about activities, seasons, and logistics for its users. Creating additional Substacks and Reddit posts about Mammoth to go alongside the official website would also help generate online traffic, she noted.
“The audience is already there,” she said. “They’re already asking questions that could make Mammoth Lakes show up [on a chatbot]. For us, the task is to make changes to be there. It’s an opportunity for us to look at how we make content now and bring it into the future.”
The meeting then transitioned to MLT’s own AI policy, drafted in November.
At the time, MLT was among the first in the destination marketing industry to take the step of establishing such a policy.
The policy was presented as a framework, not a formula, to account for technology constantly advancing and changing.
The policy outlines both MLT’s approved uses of AI (summarizing survey results, idea generation, and meeting note-taking) and the prohibited uses (legal advice, uploading confidential contracts, sharing login credentials).
“As the technology and associated risks continue to change, this framework will adapt alongside it,” an MLT staff member explained. “Without a clear framework, we introduce real risk around data exposure, inaccurate information, brand misalignment, and ultimately loss of trust, potentially with our community and partners.”
