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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The day is done. We're just getting started. The last show with David Cooper.
As hotels cut costs, they are replacing human workers with AI. And we're left whispering sweet nothings to a glowing screen for extra towels. Convenient? Maybe. But a romantic dinner recommendation from a concierge hotel robot employee? That's where things start to get a little weird. Do we prefer human touch in hospitality?
Well, that's what we're going to discuss with associate professor and founding director at the Nemecolin Hospitality Lab at West Virginia University, A.J. Alluri. A.J., welcome to the show. Hi, David. Thanks for having me.
Chapter 2: What are the current trends in AI adoption in hotels?
So in what ways can we expect in the next five or 10 years hotels, especially mid-range hotels, to shift towards using AI and robots and check-in screens and kind of losing that human touch? No, absolutely, David. We are in the crossroads of high-touch and high-tech, and there's no question about that. And more and more hotels are trying to really solve the staffing problem.
The efficiency problem, right? So these are the major challenges. And then part of it is going into automation and AI. And there's a huge adoption of AI happening right now. And that is what, you know, you will see in the next five, 10 years. So the goal is to, again, hospitality and tourism is more on the high touch foundation.
And if you're built on high touch foundation, you can do a great high tech on top of it. High touch meaning what exactly? Customer service, face-to-face interactions, where there is a human essence of hospitality, wherever you go, in every touch point, you talk to a human. Whereas now with mobile check-ins and check-outs, you take away that touch point, so you're going high tech.
So instead of high touch, you're going into high tech. Got it. So walk me through some of your research. I imagine hotels and hotel managers feel one way about using AI in their in their establishments. And I imagine the guests might feel something slightly different. Exactly. So this is what we found in our research.
When we looked at the guest perspective, we looked at the overall journey, you know, before the stay, during the stay and after stay and during the stay. Obviously, a lot of the guests want that high touch experience, right? The human human experience. where they want to go into the front desk, talk to humans and all of that.
But when you go into overall before stay and after stay, they're easy to use conversational AI, whether it's a tool, whether it's a robot, service robot, or any of the chatbots or AI chatbots. The thing about employees is because of, you know, crazy hours, because of, you know, stress and, you know, hospitality industry is 24 hours on 365 days.
So they actually prefer technology that can solve a lot of these, you know, routine rule-based problems so they can take care of the human as customer service. Now I know concierge at hotels, not all of them, but some of them, for example, if I asked for a romantic restaurant recommendation, they might be a shill for the restaurant.
They might send me to a restaurant that has kind of a handshake with a hotel. But if that were to happen, I would still trust it a lot more than like going to a screen saying, hey, can I have some restaurant recommendations?
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Chapter 3: How is AI replacing human roles in the hospitality industry?
Is that what you're finding? Like the people want that personal touch and that when they ask for help, even if a machine can provide it, it's just a weird experience? So this is where, when it comes to AI concierge, a lot will change in the future. And then right now, you think a lot of the employees are well-trained. They know exactly how to really guide you to that dinner experience, right?
But guess what? The recent research with conversational AI, I'm working with a service robot that has so much of data. It has a lot of information about you, about the region, and all of it. Sometimes you cannot train a human to know most everything and everywhere. including multilingual. This particular service bot can talk 50 plus languages at an advanced level. So just think about that.
You know, the multilingual, the database, the ability to connect with the PMS systems, the property management systems, that is where the future is going. Because you can do that with AI Concierge, with a service robot or a conversational AI bot as part of your app, as part of your website. It sounds like cool technology, but how do the customers respond to it?
Chapter 4: What challenges do hotels face with AI implementation?
So most of the customers obviously prefer instant experiences. And that is exactly where we're going. You know, people are using Gen AI platforms where they get these responses right away. And if you're waiting on a customer call, like, you know, a customer service call for more than two, three minutes, people are frustrated. So there is like...
change in expectations on how customers are expecting things to happen right away. And if you're in the AI concierge, they want you to give you that answer right away. A lot of times, they are not well-trained. They don't know exactly how to present these things. That's why service robots and computational AI can give you better experiences than the actual employees, right?
Especially when you go into late nights, when you go into off times, right? This is where From my experience, I'm surprised the hardware, you know, growth in the last just two, three years with terms of conversation AI, it's going to change really drastically in how we can integrate that with chatbots, websites and apps and so on and so forth. I'm hearing that it's great technology.
And for some use cases like late night recommendations or maybe the language where the hotel is, the national language, I don't speak it. I see where it's a benefit there. But I'm imagining my parents who are in their 70s going, well, sorry, my mother's in her early 20s. She would want you to think that. But mom, if you're listening, I'm sorry. But my parents are in their 70s.
If they go to a hotel, they're not going to want to talk to a screen. They're going to want a person, want to have a person. Are you sure that everyone is ready and going to want this technology? And that is exactly why I call this as, you know, a lot of our research shows that people prefer these face-to-face high-touch experiences during their stay.
The beauty of really using high-tech and high-touch combination is if you can take care of these high-tech customers that prefer the screens, that prefer mobile check-ins, that prefer AI chatbots or service bots, you're getting them really quickly out of it. So you have more time for high-touch customers like your parents.
So now hotels can have more time for your parents instead of like rushing them, like saying, hey, Check-in, check-out, go, go.
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Chapter 5: What does high-touch hospitality mean in the age of AI?
Versus, you know what, 50% of my customers are high-tech versus 50% are high-touch. Your 50% of high-tech customers are taken care of with technology. Now you have more time for your high-touch customers. And that's the way to go in the future. So I'm hearing a hybrid model is ideal.
Something like a grocery store with the self-checkout lanes, but then also clerks to check you out if that's what you want, not all one or all of the other. Exactly. The hybrid approach is the way to go, but human intervention in hospitality is needed, right? The technology is only good as it goes.
I mean, if you don't have a human intervention as needed, then you're not really creating those experiences. So I would say the future of hospitality is not high tech or high touch, but it's high tech with high touch. Now, you're convinced this is the future of hotels, like even the highest end ones, or is this more like middle range kind of experiences?
So as you go into luxury, upper upscale and upscale, yes, you will need that customer service. You're expected to have a customer service representative at the concierge and so on and so forth. Don't get me wrong. But when you go into the future, your app is something will have an AI chatbot already integrated. You will only go to a concierge desk only if needed. If not, you will go on that...
you know, quick AI chatbot and you would do all that. And it would have a conversational AI. When you pick your phone, you won't need to wait. You directly go into a customer service agent talking to you.
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Chapter 6: How do guests perceive the balance between AI and human touch?
And that agent is a conversational AI. You will go into it. But in a luxury, upper upscale, upscale, yes, you will have an option for high touch service as well. Now to people like, I suppose my parents, maybe even a little bit me, AJ, who's still skeptical that this is the way the future is going. What would you say to try to convince them that this is in their best interest as a consumer?
So the beauty of a hospitality is, you know, my philosophy is, you know, we are in the hospitality industry. We never want to take away that human essence of hospitality. But we are also at the age where there is a demographic changes. You know, people prefer that high tech services because as they are adopting AI platforms and tools, their expectations of service is also changing.
And that is one reason you want to have that high tech elements to it. So you kind of set the expectations, but never, never give away that high touch experience that you're looking for. Because end of the day, when people come to your property, your resorts and restaurants and so on and so forth, What do they expect? They expect that human customer service, that service quality.
And that is something you can do better if you can integrate high-tech and balance it in a very good way. Well, AJ, I've appreciated the chat. Thanks for coming on the show, sharing your research with me and talking about what the future of hospitality looks like. Absolutely, David. Thanks for having me. Great chatting with you.
AJ Alluri is an associate professor and founding director of the Nima Collin Hospitality Lab at West Virginia University.
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