How AI can have a positive impact on the hospitality industry

The hospitality industry is poised for greater levels of productivity and profitability thanks to artificial intelligence tools.

This was one of the key messages from technology entrepreneur John Straw on day one of the AHC in Manchester.  Straw was keen to dispel some of the preoccupations that surround the rapid evolution of AI.

“What I commonly hear with AI now is a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt,” he said “A lot of newspaper columns about whole industries being decimated and mass unemployment, so I’ve got some good news. I do not think your industry is going to be strategically disrupted by AI.”

Jobs in industries such as financial services and screenwriting have been affected by AI. Fintech firm Klarna reportedly cut hundreds of jobs because AI bots are “better and more consistent” at answering customer enquiries. Hollywood scriptwriters sought protections against the use of AI when they went on strike for five months in 2023.

Straw, however, saw a bright future for hospitality, especially over the next five years, one in which AI will extract more money and productivity across multiple back-office and front-office functions.

Automated reconciliation

In a separate AHC panel, Ronen Nissenbaum said that his company Fattal Hotel Group is deploying AI powered software to perform back-of-house tasks like financial reconciliation because “we couldn’t find the people to do those jobs.” Fattal is also piloting a bot that automatically relays messages to various departments such as the front desk and housekeeping.

Louisa Green, managing director, RBH Hospitality Management added that automation has delivered progress for her company by recouping lost commission – money previously going missing – as well as reducing or eliminating queues at reception desks.

While office and admin roles will see the highest levels of AI integration, management, sales & marketing and computer-related roles will also change to incorporate AI.

The time required to write up the notes from a meeting, produce a data set, a task list, a  PowerPoint presentation, and distribute them via email is around three to four hours. Straw said that Google and Microsoft now have products that can do the same work in a matter of seconds.

The preparation and serving of food are jobs that will be unaffected by AI, he added, at least for the next 40 or so years. Construction and maintenance are other areas where AI will have limited impact.

Citing a statistic which claimed that one third of UK managers have never used AI, Straw advised managers to get ahead by improving prompt engineering skills within their businesses.

This refers to the skill of layering questions into a generative AI tool like ChatGPT that build detail and sophistication to get the required results. He used the example of asking the AI to find the best wine to pair with steak; the more detail given about the steak, the better.