Is AI The End Of Customer Service In Hospitality?

Introduction

Over the past year, AI has been heralded as both the savior and the downfall of nearly every industry, and hospitality is no exception. Are we moving toward a dystopian future where guests are greeted by robot butlers upon arrival? Probably not. However, the rapid progress in AI has naturally led to concerns about job security. Hospitality has always prided itself on its people and the exceptional service they provide. So, does AI have a place in hotels, travel agencies, or tour operators? To answer this, let's explore the potential use cases and weigh the risks against the opportunities of adopting this new technology.

The Risks of AI

1. Missing Human Touch

What differentiates a great hotel is often the little human interactions—the warm welcome, the handwritten note, or the friendly smiles from each staff member. These micro-connections create lasting memories of how a hotel made you feel. They build brand loyalty, prompting guests to return year after year and recommend the hotel to others. The idea of completely replacing hotel staff with AI poses the threat of losing the unique feeling that distinguishes one hotel from another, turning a stay into a transaction rather than an experience.

2. Loss of Culture

Imagine visiting an Indonesian island hotel and being greeted by a local who grew up nearby and can share stories of their experiences and culture. This adds a rich layer of authenticity that can't be replicated by AI. Moreover, it supports sustainable tourism by providing jobs and careers to local communities. Replacing this with AI could mean a loss of the local flavor that makes these experiences special.

3. Lack of Competitiveness

Hotels must constantly consider profitability, and with that comes cost management. As competitors adopt AI to improve their operations, they may be able to reduce prices while maintaining profitability or use additional profits to enhance guest experiences. This creates a scenario where, even if you choose not to adopt AI, your competitors might gain a competitive advantage that impacts your occupancy rates.

The Opportunities of AI

1. Instant Responses

AI agents and systems have the advantage of never being offline. In a world where your customers may be coming from anywhere across the globe, the ability to respond 24/7 is a huge advantage. Sometimes guests are just one question away from booking, but a delayed response can result in losing them to a competitor. AI gives hotels the power to fully automate responses to frequently asked questions, like “Is there a kids' club?”, or quickly draft responses to more complex questions that your team can review and supplement with additional information.

2. Improved Accuracy

Hotels often have high staff turnover, leading to dispersed knowledge about the property. Additionally, changing rates, menus, or price lists can make it tricky to respond quickly and accurately to guest queries. AI can help maintain a centralized knowledge base that acts as a single source of truth. New menus or information can be easily added in a format that AI will automatically use to respond accurately to guests.

3. Multilingual Support

Even with the best staff, it's unrealistic to expect fluency in every language. This often places the burden on guests to communicate in a language that isn't their native tongue. The latest AI models can instantly understand and respond in the guest's preferred language, even when the hotel's knowledge base is in a different language. This allows guests to ask questions about a menu or website they might not fully understand, with AI translating for them in real time.

4. Consistent Messaging

Building a brand tone and voice is one of the most challenging aspects of hospitality marketing. With staff changes and varying personalities, it's nearly impossible for a management team to ensure consistent communication across emails, social media, and phone interactions. AI offers the advantage of fine-tuning a model based on a set of communications or by instructing the tone and personality of the responses. This can help speed up communications while maintaining brand consistency, without the need to constantly redraft messaging.

So, Is AI the Saviour or Downfall?

In reality, the answer isn't so dramatic. AI presents numerous opportunities in hospitality—not to replace staff, but to support them in providing even better service and experiences for customers. By integrating AI-powered systems, staff can complete repetitive tasks such as responding to inquiries and answering queries faster and more accurately. This leads to far more efficient operations and frees up time to focus on the value-added services that require a human touch: welcoming a guest on arrival because an AI agent is helping another customer book their transport, or supporting a wedding party with unique requests while the AI provides the latest availability to travel agents.

As we move forward, hotels that wisely adopt AI will likely see significant competitive advantages, both financially and in the quality of service they offer.

At Kai, we aim to support hotels in their AI adoption by offering simple, elegant solutions to supercharge guest communications. Kai can be deployed as a chat window on your hotel's website or connected to other channels like WhatsApp or Instagram to answer guests' questions instantly. Kai is trained on your hotel's information, enabling it to answer accurately, 24/7, and in your guest's chosen language. Kai also provides an omnichannel dashboard to review guest analytics and conversations, or jump into any conversation with human handover. If you're interested in finding out more about Kai, please reach out to us for a demo at contact@hellokai.ai.