Artificial Intelligence… Where could and should AI be adopted in our industry?
Information Technology
— 15 experts shared their view



Adjunct Professor NYU Tisch Center for Hospitality and Hospitality & Online Travel Tech Consultant
It is not up to the industry to decide whether to embrace next-gen technologies, including AI, or not. The marketplace itself, severe labor shortage, cost efficiencies and the rising tide of digitally-obsessed travel consumers are demanding that our industry overcome its glaring technology deficiencies and imposing on our industry the rapid adoption of next-gen technologies. see more

Chief Technology Officer at Red Planet Hotels
By AI I think we typically refer to ML (Machine Learning). ML could be leveraged in various aspects - yielding by anticipating guest arrival/departure times, anticipating guest requests, even planning/anticipating staff capacity. The issue, as always, is the data - integrations between hospitality systems are still not universal, data is still siloed, and the quality of the data itself is generally low due to human error which should be compensated for, but is generally magnified by complex and difficult-to-use technology platforms. This means that while ML could benefit the industry, the data infrastructure within hospitality companies required to realize these benefits is 'not quite there' yet.

Chief Technology Officer at Rosen Hotels & Resorts
It may be time to stop asking where we “could or should” be adopting Artificial Intelligence. 'Should' is off the table because AI technology is becoming so pervasive and meaningful that we can't afford to ignore its capabilities. Chat-bots are an excellent example of what deep-learning applications can do; humans will soon stop asking other humans for information or assistance just as we've stopped asking for driving directions. see more

Professor at Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne
Even though still in the Buzz word stage, AI will play a massive role in our industry. Most will state that it will be a customer facing technology. From concierge robots who can interact with guests to chatbots and messaging. While these are a great use of the technology where I believe it can have the biggest impact is data analysis. Being able to take all the customer reviews, surveys, online comments, and social media postings and being able to create understandable and actionable items from the system that hotels can improve their service offering or better understand their customers to drive better performance will be where this technology should have its place in our industry.

Chief Technology Officer at Accor
Revenue management systems (RMS) were once amongst the hottest technologies in our industry. Unfortunately, we have not made much progress beyond hurdle rates, last room availability and length of stay powered by basic algorithms that haven't changed much. AI is offering a great opportunity to make those platforms quicker and better. When we combine CRM and RMS systems we have the ability to personalize offers and to yield on individuals instead of room inventory alone. see more

Co-Founder at TRAVHOTECH
Artificial Intelligence is not new to the hospitality industry in the specifics of narrow intelligence. The industry has long had technology capable of providing decision support or executive information around specific and targeted sets of consolidated information. The main example is what we today know as revenue management systems. see more

Research has repeatedly shown that consumers want to have engaging, relevant experiences. In fact, 61% of consumers are more likely to buy from companies that deliver custom content based on real-time interaction. First, in this age of convergence, the traditional lines between marketing, revenue management, loyalty and distribution are becoming blurred. Hilton has publicly stated it collects one billion guest-related data points every day. AI needs a lot of data to be collected, and the industry is finally able to do so. AI-powered dynamic engagement recommendation and conversion engines are emerging which proactively determine what and how to offer a guest based on reams of data collected. see more

Vice President IT at Belmond
AI is already being leveraged in many hotels, from online concierge and chatbot systems, to sophisticated revenue management and yielding platforms. An area of great potential for AI is in a space where guests are already accustomed to using it at home...with voice controlled digital assistants such as Alexa and Google. As hotel rooms become more sophisticated with complex lighting arrangements, mechanical curtains, connected temperature controlling, music, and TV systems, it becomes much easier and intuitive for the guest to use their voice to control the room. Voice controlled assistants powered by AI bring a simple user interface to connect many systems...just like at home.

Hospitality Consultant
AI is a popular subject at the Royal Institution where I'm a patron and it is the World's oldest science charity (set up by Michael Faraday in 1799) and it is based in Albemarle St in Piccadilly. The Ri run low-cost talks aimed at a non-techy audience and often get great speakers in who explain complex subjects very clearly. More here if anyone is interested: https://www.rigb.org/ see more

Corporate Director of IT at Bierwirth & Kluth Hotel Management
To me AI is no “panacea” that will solve all challenges in our industry – AI is a scientific discipline (like mathematics or biology) meaning that AI is nothing more than an array of concepts and methods to solve problems. Alan Turing once said, that “anything that can be computed (…) can be automated!”. AI aided business processes in the hospitality industry are therefore plenty to aim for in my opinion: see more

CTO at Village Hotel Club
AI is a very exciting topic with many seeing it as the most impactful emerging technology. I think the most exciting use of the technology will be in the improved efficiency and success of forecasting. Being able to draw from data of both internal and external sources will allow us to paint a more accurate picture of how changes in the environment impact the business. Taking over some of the more data driven tasks will allow our experts to focus on the application of the forecast and changes that will have positive impacts on the business.

In its current form, AI is best suited to take over repetitive tasks and/or make use of large amounts of data. AI will, therefore, touch many areas of the hospitality industry in the near future. For example, hotels could use AI at the front desk to automate mundane chores like check-in, check out, payments, or task management. Or hotels could use AI in sales and marketing to intelligently upsell, cross-sell, personalize communications, or customize its website based on a guest's profile or behavior. Revenue managers will also make use of AI to intelligently (and automatically) set pricing and build out attribute-based pricing models. see more

Several years ago I remember watching the Jeopardy episode(s) where IBM's “Watson” played against human opponents and beat former champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. That was my first insight into the possibility of what AI could do. Now AI capabilities are quite common in chatbots and responses for text messaging platforms. This helps frees up human manpower (away from transactional type questions) to spend more quality time engaging with guests and shaping more memorable guest experiences. see more

Senior Managing Director at PROVision Partners
In my 30+ years in the travel and hospitality technology sector I've not seen anything with the promise of revolutionizing the guest experience quite like natural language processing - the technology behind popular voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant, and IBM Watson, among others. Like other popular consumer technologies, voice assistants require a technology overlay to achieve the business objectives of hoteliers and meet the demands of complex integrated hotel environments. see more

The keyword here is personalization. When applying AI to the interaction between hospitality brands and travelers, we can arrive at Predictive Personalization: understanding user behavior to predict how to best serve him so that we increase both user satisfaction and hotel revenue. By focusing on a narrow, industry-specific use of machine learning, it's possible to create predictive algorithms and offer completely new, powerful targeting options like buying intent or user value, and even attempt to find the holy grail of e-commerce: personalized price.