Artificial Intelligence is a blessing which everyone these days crave for. It is taking over almost every major industry, even the hospitality industry. Although the hospitality industry is in its infancy stage of adopting big data and AI, currently, the effects have been rippling throughout. Hotel booking, flight booking, customer service, you name it, AI has made major influences in that field. It is fair to say in today’s world that machines have replaced most of the obsolete and redundant human labor.
This is by far, or potentially can be the case of the hospitality industry, judging solely on the type of work present.
So, let us take a look at how this change in methodology has actually affected the industry.
1. REVENUE MANAGEMENT
RM basically means to optimize product price in such a way that it helps to extract maximum revenue when selling a particular product. This is only possible through proper data and analysis.
In the hospitality industry, for example, say a hotel, the rooms, and accommodations, need to be priced in a fair manner, according to the standard of the hotel, and the class of customers.
That’s why data analysis is required to provide certain marketable information, such as demand patterns, predict customer behavior and come up with proper price models.
2. PERSONALISATION
Having a personalized experience when you go to a hotel or are trying to book a plane ticket, is pretty run off the mill these days. Catering to what the customer likes is the sole purpose of the hospitality industry.
Serving a particular type of menu on a flight, or having a certain type of newspaper for your guests, is what proper data analysis has led to. All of this is summarized in the complete experience, which would not have been possible, without proper data management.
3. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
AI (Artificial Intelligence), is a key component of the hospitality industry. AI’s impact on the Hospitality Industry can be huge. What makes it such a major figure here, might be the potential that it holds for a business. AI has unparalleled computing intelligence, it stores massive amounts of data and analyses within a matter of seconds.
This can help future growth. For example, if an industrialist wants to expand his hotel business, he/she would need coinciding data to start operations.
Let’s say the AI could provide that, like where the key demographic lies, what would suit better in a dinner menu as opposed to the lunch menu, what location is ideal for the business to expand in, etc. This could provide a major edge against the competition, as the data collected now would become the Intellectual Property of the company and can be used against competitors.
4. EFFICIENCY THROUGH AUTOMATION
The operational cost for any business is very high, especially hiring a labor force through periods of turnover, and recession. AI solves this problem by taking up menial chores and providing basic services at airports and hotels. This leads to reduced operational costs and more revenue for the business.
Although massive companies can easily cope with such issues, small or medium-scale companies might not have the required resources. AI, therefore, can be used as a great social equalizer, and prove profitable for even small-scale companies.
5. BETTER ADVERTISING AND WIDER REACH
The hospitality industry has no problem advertising the many businesses it encompasses, but the fact is that through the help of AI, this process becomes much easier. One example of this is in customer service, where the existence of chatbots gives instantaneous and automated replies to the customer.
It is almost like dealing with a real-life customer executive. These AI functions help in advertising, as they provide push notifications through these chatbots, or various applications rendered to perform accordingly.
Due to the existence of AI, these apps take into consideration the customers’ choices and how that can affect the business, and provide suggestions accordingly. Due to the advent of AI, social media marketing has become the norm in today’s advertising.
6. PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION
As mentioned earlier, the hospitality industry needs to run on efficiency, but why? Well simply because wastefulness does not contribute to profit. Hence, performance optimization is a requisite in today’s competitive world.
AI helps analyze large chunks of data and provides solutions and methods which were not previously tried and tested.
For a long time, businesses have been using trial and error to gain advantage and experience, and to be fair that is not possible to cut out completely, but with AI it can be curbed.
With the help of proper data analysis in the hospitality industry, the market can be manipulated, and success can be achieved faster.
Therefore performance optimization is key to the success of a business because it has to showcase the product, and if the product fails, then nothing else matters.
7. INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCES
Many companies have started using cloud-based voice-operated interactive systems. Not only big tech companies but, even major hotels, have their own version of Alexa or Siri. Hotels all across the world understand that such devices add experience for the customer and therefore improve customer satisfaction.
Even airports have started giving into this technique, which is a step towards achieving considerable profit. Interactive systems like these help in increasing customer engagement, and creates a certain pull and attraction.
Conclusion
So, it is clear that machines are taking over leading to a faster, quicker and more efficient way of life. It is a myth that people are losing jobs specifically due to this because machines don’t replace a particular job; they make a part of the job easier and help improve the business.
AI and big data companies might have all the strongholds in the coming generation, and maybe it’s for the better, as we can see the hospitality industry has only grown and become more fruitful for all stakeholders concerned.
