Key roles of AI in the travel and hospitality industry post-COVID-19 pandemic

The travel & hospitality industry, one of the most adversely affected industries by the pandemic, is going through a tough phase as the second wave of COVID-19 crashes down the leftover hopes of many businesses. The industry was gradually picking up pace post the first wave but again, the threat of business crash and loss looms across organizations. As a result, hoteliers are brainstorming innovative ideas to survive and sail through the tough times. Technological up-gradation is on the rise for financial, strategic, and operational survival.

The Increasing Reliance on Technology

Technology is undoubtedly ruling over the world lately especially during the pandemic when businesses rely on advanced tech tools like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to sail through the tough times.  In November 2020, McKinsey conducted a global survey on AI which suggests that organizations are using AI for generating value which is coming in the form of revenue. The respondents, coming from a variety of industries admitted that over 20% of their companies' earnings are because of AI and therefore, they plan to invest more in the technology in response to the pandemic and for digital acceleration.

AI has created greater trust among organizations including the hospitality sector which has sophisticated its entire system with the adoption of advanced technologies to provide satisfying customer service. It is not only for surviving the uncertain times but also for maximizing their profit margins.

Definitely! Technology will play a significant role in the recovery of the hospitality industry. Hotels will need to focus on automation, efficiency, and technology as core USPs and also, convert a lot of fixed costs into variable costs. All important aspects of running a hotel, including manpower, real estate, supplies, energy, need to be automated to ensure more can be achieved from less.

Here is how technology plays a key role in getting the hospitality industry on track:

1. Guest Experience

With AI integration, hoteliers are providing personalized services to guests that ensure customer delight and a pleasant customer experience. To achieve this, data is decoded about customer behavior, satisfaction levels and likes/dislikes from various sources. By gathering this predictive data, it is structured to create hyper-personalized campaigns and increase customer retention.

Further, the AI concierge bots allow users to chat with a personal travel concierge at any time of the day and request different services or information. The aim is to minimize human interaction, create a consistent guest experience and ensure a pleasant as well as safe stay at the hotel. The concierges take care of everything from check-in and check out to room service and food delivery. Moreover, with an all-in-one connected system, augmented reality is being used inside rooms. It connects all touch-points including bathrooms, entertainment systems, lights, etc.

2. Hotel Staff

Manpower or staff is one of the most critical inputs to hotels and it is important to maintain an optimum level of balance between hotel room capacity and permanent staff to enhance efficiency. The staff to room ratio is even more critical during the pandemic as hotels focus more on sustaining operations and profitability. The use of systems to track staff performance, multi-skilling of staff are some of the popular strategies being adopted by hotels to ensure that staff requirements are reduced.

3. Automated Hotels

Today, an increasing number of hotels are entering into an automated future. In the future, we will see many of them being run by automated receptions where routine operations like check-in, checkout, and payments will be done automatically. The robotic experience is another big thing expected to disrupt the industry. An AI model or AI-powered robot can also learn from guests and adapt to their behavior over time while answering questions, making the experience smarter, easier, and more enjoyable for guests. Surely! It can woo the guests in the most unpredictable ways.

4. Back Office Automation

The repetitive tasks in the back-office including reservations are being taken care of by automated All in One PMS systems. Further, many hotels are using chatbots to communicate with guests to minimize CRM activity. RPA, a key tool in back-office automation can take over mundane and repetitive tasks. This is because AI is capable of recognizing demand patterns, forecasting prices, and also planning human resource requirements. Further, ML can automate the categorization of invoices, helping in revenue accounting.

Summing Up!

The potential of AI is huge and a lot of it still lies untapped. Organizations from across various sectors are moving away from traditional automated systems to intelligent cognitive agents that engage with customers in more human-like interactions. By using a combination of AI and advanced analytics, the hospitality industry can generate better value in addition to providing a memorable experience to guests.