Motivations for Managers to Embrace AI

The tourism industry is becoming increasingly aware of the use of AI as a way of making its operations more efficient or using technology to improve the service or customer experience. Ai agents, seen as systems that “think humanly, act humanly, think rationally or act rationally”, make use of a bundle of technologies such as Natural language processing (to communicate), Knowledge representation (to store information), Automated reasoning (to draw conclusions from stored information), Machine Learning, a data analysis method that automates the creation of analytical models and Computer vision, to perceive objects and Robotics, to manipulate objects and move.

There are many well-known cases of major players, from hotels to food and beverage operators, who have embraced AI as a way of addressing these objectives. From the Henn-na hotel chain, a pioneer in using narrow AI in its operations, a major part of big hotel chains, such as Hilton Hotels, Edwardian, Marriott, Mandarin Oriental, Sheraton, Westin, ALOFT, IHG brands such as Holiday Inn or Radisson, YOTEL, EMC hotels currently explore AI to develop accommodation support services in their operations; on the other side, operators such as Royal Caribbean Cruises, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) or Mc Donalds, just to name a few, currently use AI, either in customer service, production, delivery or planning and reservation activities.

A recent study conducted over 60 hotels, from 1 to 5 stars in Portugal, reveals the motivations that drive owners or GM´s to adopt AI:

• The use of AI allows employees to dedicate themselves more to tasks with greater added value;
• Affecting technology to tasks that require physical effort (moving furniture or luggage, for example), subject to danger or carried out at night (putting work life balance at risk), AI is a way to improve employee satisfaction;
• The use of AI provides employees with more analyzed data and more processing resulting in less work;
• The use of AI may increase the value of the hotel brand;
• It is a way to develop service at a lower cost;
• The use of AI helps to improve customer security;
• AI allows improving the company´s image as an innovative and technologically advanced company;
• AI is a way to improve the quality of service, ensuring consistency;
• AI is a way to provide faster customer service;
• AI is a way of ensuring that services can be sold at lower prices;
• AI allows improving operational excellence and thus the value perceived by the customer;
• AI is a way to provide the company with the capacity to serve customers better, for example by interacting with them in more languages or providing them with more accurate information;
• AI is a way to create new customer experiences;
• AI enables to increase hotel revenue streams;
• AI allows to develop more personalized customer experiences;
• AI is a way of offering new services to customers that could not be offered before as they were prohibitively expensive;
• AI represents a way to solve legal problems with hiring and firing employees, specially in countries with strict labor laws;
• AI is a way to provide and use more consistent information;
• AI provides a solution to reduce the problems caused by the aging of the population;
• AI allows promoting social interaction between clients;
• AI allows the hotel to engage with customers in a more personal way;
• The use of AI represents a way to compensate for the performance of employees with less emotional intelligence and thus improve overall performance;
• Technology has a superior ability to handle calculations, as robots handle math better than human employees;
• AI allows managing operations more efficiently, improving operational efficiency;
• AI allows promoting pro-environmental behaviors;
• AI helps the customer to make decisions faster;
• The use of AI provides the companies with employees (robots) who are more educated than human employees;
• AI represents a way to improve minimum wages
• AI allows addressing the resolution of tasks that are eminently routine or of low added value.

That may be grouped in six major categories, such as the search for improving service efficiency, the search for factors that positively impact the image and brand, the development of new services, the improvement of customer experience or, from an operations point of view, improving customer security or linked to management-related factors such as more revenue streams or resolving legal issues related to the human workforce.

On the contrary, aspects that can act as barriers to the use of AI by companies include the lack of internal resources capable of managing or maintaining it, the lack of technology, the existence of inaccurate data or even the different motivations that can drive brand owners and holders of exploration, generally seeking benefits that are not always aligned, not adopting AI, as well as the lesser ability of robots to deal with emotions. The adoption of AI in companies may also require the reengineering of internal processes, including training or significant changes to the organizational structure or culture of the company. Customers can also represent a barrier to the use of AI, either because they prefer to be served by a human or because of the negative marketing they can generate, judging the company that uses AI for preferring profits over people.