AI has emerged as a revolution within the past few years, and there is hardly any industry left that hasn’t yet embraced this beaming technology. So today, let’s take a closer look at the multivariate ways in which AI and automation have been changing the face of the hospitality industry to make it stronger than ever before.
30-second summary:
- AI has the potential to improve hotel reputation, enhance customer experience, and drive revenue
- Chatbots, along with actual front desk staff, ease the process of inquiry and bookings
- Massive data volumes to learn more about customer preferences and behavioral patterns
- Voice-enabled technology to let the guests feel at home and receive customized services
The adoption of emerging technologies has become quite a trend in the hospitality sector after receiving inspiration from successful use cases. And one such new tech whose popularity is spreading far and wide by the day is AI and the resultant automation.
In the hospitality industry, the increasing demand for the adoption of artificial intelligence stems from the fact that it has the power to impact and change the sector completely. Furthermore, with the rising need for smart automation of current processes, AI has come to the conventional hospitality landscape with the potential to improve hotel reputation, enhance customer experience, and drive revenue.
Reports suggest that the travel and hospitality AI market is slated to exceed $1.2 billion by 2026, growing at an estimated CAGR of more than 9.7% within this period. This offers ample proof that the sector is readily opening up to the prospects of AI and automation. On that note, we, at Avlon Shiksha Niketan, a renowned tourism management institute in Kolkata, will be taking you in this article today through the various ways in which AI and automation have been revolutionizing the hospitality industry.
Changing the way of handling booking inquiries
Chatbots in the hospitality industry are changing the way customer inquiries are dealt with, thereby turning more visitors into patrons. Thus, it comes as no surprise that 68 percent of airlines are turning to AI-based intelligent chatbots. These chatbots are made to simulate conversation through natural language processing and generation in the native language. It enables efficient, concise, and controlled interactions between computing machines and humans.
At Avlon Shiksha Niketan, we believe that as customers are already in the habit of taking recommendations from digital platforms, the hospitality sector is willingly embracing and adopting artificial intelligence. After all, businesses get to enable greater customer interactions by offering fast-paced delivery service and 24/7 availability.
Built to ease and further refine the workings of the actual front desk staff, conversational artificial intelligence in resorts and hotels fuels the digital reservation process by helping the businesses up-sell their popular services like dinner reservations, body care treatments, and more.
Making the most of the huge data volumes from AI
Hotels are turning to strategic, accurately crafted process automation of their customer care and internal services for reducing service costs and optimizing the operational costs. Furthermore, the integration of AI in hospitality has become more beneficial for guests and hoteliers due to the inculcation of machine learning abilities. To this end, the hotel sales and marketing system has been integrating chatbots software to learn more about changing customer tastes, behavioral patterns, and convincing responses.
Machine learning in artificial intelligence observes the alterations in trends and the delivered responses of preceding agent conversations before it starts to produce its precise responses, personalize offers, and customize suggestions to match the preferences of travel planners. As such, besides enhancing customer services, artificial intelligence also helps to make appropriate decisions depending on huge data volume.
Driving automation through AI and the Internet of Things
The widespread use and adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) mean that almost every other person uses some kind of wearable device nowadays, and the hospitality industry has been making the best use of this scenario.
Through interconnected devices and sensors, hotel operation systems interact perfectly with the physical world to offer a highly personalized customer experience to each guest. Hotel rooms have been using the present network of technologies along with virtual assistants to take the experience to the next level.
Establishing artificial intelligence in resorts and hotels enables the business to create more prospects to offer excellent services that go a notch above the ordinary. It ranges from suggesting music, books, and spa treatments to guests and goes all the way to automatically notifying the staff for customized meals, complimentary services, and special privileges.
Voice-enabled virtual assistants to enhance customer experience
With the recent advances in artificial intelligence, hotels have started equipping the rooms with smart devices that come with a voice recognition system. Though the top names in the business world began this trend, nowadays, we find even the new hotels and luxury ventures offer this AI-enabled facility.
At Avlon Shiksha Niketan, a well-known tourism management institute in Kolkata, we believe that one of the reasons for hotels to introduce voice-enabled technology is to let guests have a similar experience in their rooms as they enjoy at home through their interconnected devices. The guests can control all the features in their room through Alexa or Siri, and that’s one of the surest ways to make them feel right at home.
Boosting business through perceptive on-premise recommendations
As hotels can now garner heaps of crucial customer data, they have started using machine learning with business-based algorithms to get accurate predictions about customer preferences. Such analytical ability of artificial intelligence keeps the hotels agile in offering services beyond the usual set of offerings.
For instance, think of a guest who has just returned to her room after a long day of business meetings and conferences. Thanks to all the data gathered using artificial intelligence, hotels can offer complementary or add-on services like spa treatments or massages. And a business that goes the extra mile in customer care is sure to earn brownie points from the customer.
The advantages of artificial intelligence and automation in the hospitality industry have already been outlined above. However, the increased adoption of technology does not take away from the fact that the sector will never stop needing the human touch. Guests prefer hearing an actual voice when they call the hotels, and it assures them to see smiling faces greeting and assisting them throughout. Thus, at Avlon Shiksha Niketan, one of the top tourism management institutes in Kolkata, we train and hone your skills to make you the future professional of this sector who not only stays abreast about the latest tech but also boosts business through enhanced industry knowledge and people skills.