Dive Brief:
- Artificial intelligence is helping hospitality employees complete routine tasks, with 90% of workers saying that AI helps them get everyday duties finished more quickly, according to a Nov. 4 joint report from the American Hotel & Lodging Association and software firm Actabl.
- Nearly two-fifths of respondents (38%) said AI was most effective in speeding up operational efficiency, making that the top area of value and placing it nearly 10 percentage points ahead of revenue growth (28%), according to “AI and the Hotel Workforce: How Technology Is Supporting People and Improving Hotel Operations.”
- However, while 84% of total respondents said AI had improved workloads, just 15% said AI had improved frontline work. This disparity suggests that implementing AI for guest-facing roles could present “one of the industry’s biggest opportunities,” per the report.
Dive Insight:
While AI is helping the hospitality industry lighten the load of administrative tasks, manage scheduling and support retention, the report indicated that the tech’s best use case allows people to remain at the center of the business.
“AI’s greatest value is as an enabler for the hotel workforce, not a replacement for critical hospitality labor,” states the report, unveiled at this year’s Hospitality Show. When employees are able to delegate more rote administrative tasks to AI agents, the technology can free up their time to focus on human interactions and hotel guests.
“Hospitality has always been a people business and will always be a people business,” Rosanna Maietta, president and CEO of AHLA, said in a statement. “And AI is further enabling that by giving employees more time back to [devote] to supporting their colleagues and solving problems. AI doesn’t replace what makes our industry special. It gives our people more room to deliver it.”
Hotels have begun to implement AI across services including scheduling, forecasting, onboarding, discovery, booking, concierge and more. As such, the report said industry leaders need to think about more than just what tasks AI is able to perform. They also need to consider what employees will be able to accomplish with the time they save when they’re no longer focused on tasks that can be automated.
In addition, the research found that refocusing tasks can be as beneficial to employees as it is to operators.
“When managers can see demand coming earlier, schedules become more predictable, and available hours can be redirected to training, deep cleaning, preventive maintenance, or guest service,” the report said. “For hotel employees, that can mean finishing on time and planning around childcare, school, and family commitments — the kind of stability that keeps people in the industry for years.”
