We are all alive to the excitement of data and we know, just know, that harnassing it is the route to happy, loyal customers and lively profits.
AI is the current hook on which all our data hopes and dreams are hanging and, after the initial ChatGPT frenzy of last year, in which many prepared to down tools for good, the hotel sector in particular is now rummaging through the confetti to assess the nuance.
The choices so far can be divvied up between front and back of house. The debate is raging as to whether you should be using it to communicate with guests on site, with luxury hotels showing the most concern about the impact on the relationship with the customer.
And you can see why. We’ve all had difficult experiences trying to explain to chatbots that our internet/power/will to live has faded and can someone please sort it out, only to be left wondering where the ‘shout’ button is. Handily for hotels, the products on offer are largely more sophisticated and appreciate that, by allowing guests to communicate on their devices, they are meeting a guest need.
The secondary bonus is that they should be freeing up teams to spend less time staring at screens and more time looking after the guest. Indeed, at the first HOSPA webinar of the year - The Future of Hospitality: Go beyond for evolving guest needs - Matthew Prosser, senior sales director, Agilysys, told attendees: “Through using AI, you can approach guests on site and we have found that, at one resort, we saw a further 10% of annual revenue as a result of understanding the trends and behaviours of their guest whilst they were staying.”
In wider hospitality, AI is being tapped up for marketing - data means better targeting - for help with revenue management and for operational needs such as staffing requirements. It is also being used for renovations, with one app dedicated to estimating and monitoring fit-out projects. Instant estimates are available, music to the ears of anyone who doesn’t want to spent their days value engineering halfway through a project.
Truly, one can see the value of AI. But, as with any decent meal, it’s all about the quality of the ingredients. Anyone who has been listening to the prime minister talk about how amazing AI is going to be for the NHS - an organisation run almost exclusively on bits of paper and Post-It notes - will have narrowed their eyes at his comments.
AI is fancy data processing, and if you don’t have the ingredients to feed it, you won’t be enjoying your much-vaunted revolution. If anyone is still seeing a personal trainer this far into January, you’ll be aware of the saying: “rubbish in, rubbish out”.
But for those with prime protein, the potential for fitness is remarkable.
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