Thursday, 12 April 2018

Artificial Intelligence to improve guest experience


The new best friend of travelers and hoteliers




Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a regular news item these days. Mostly because of the people’s fear of machines taking over their jobs or becoming much smarter than humans, and how those things might affect the economy. However, visions of the future are more about general Artificial Intelligence, which is focused on solving specific tasks. Difference from traditional programming is that AI allows machines to continuously develop and improve knowledge across vast and varied data sets. We are already comfortable with computers attempting to predict our behaviour, so it’s not so strange that AI-powered personal assistants with voice help are trending. The similar technology is now trending in hotel industry, but in this case, data can be collected across each stage from planning through to booking and throughout the guest’s stay, to provide personalised recommendations to improve their experiences. Some of the most practical skills for people include skills to pay bills, manage to-do lists, control lights and music, order Uber, plan travel and food and wine suggestions. Hotels want to use AI which will have skills aimed at specific guests, depending on the information they have about them. For the example, the speaker that inform the guest of personal services they offer instead of a butler explaining to them.

Well-known hotels that using AI are Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Hilton worldwide and Edwardian hotels. Their main goal is to improve guest experience. For example, in Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas guests get the calling card on check-in. The card serves as a conversational tone taken by the chat bot, like a contact number, which you can text at any time and also for advice what can you do around the hotel. Hilton Worldwide’s using Connie which was the first true AI-powered concierge bot. Is a bipedal robot, who standing at almost two feet high and interact with guests at the check-in desk. Connie can advise guests on local attractions and interesting sites and also has the ability to fine-tune its responses by learning from frequent requests. Famous hotels chain Radisson Blu owned Edwardian Hotels also provide guests assistance of AI chat bot “Edward”. They get in touch with “Edward” by text message and it answers with information on local bars and restaurants as well as deal with complaints.

Artificial Intelligence can be in a lot of help to hotels with prediction the services and activities that will be of interest to guests and to send them notifications through email, direct messaging or a mobile app. It’s designed to deliver exceptional experiences for guests who prefer digital brand interaction. There is just a question how this will except people who doesn’t like that kind of technology. But for anything AI can’t handle, there will still be hotel staff on the position. For guests this means that they can literally have whatever they want, whenever they want it and they don’t even have to lift a finger.

Kaja & Bianca




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