It’s a phrase we’re all too familiar with, “AI is coming for your job”. But, for Allen Simpson, newly appointed CEO of UKHospitality, doesn’t agree.

AI isn’t coming for your job. In fact, oftentimes, the phrase AI is mis-used.

Hospitality as an industry has in the past been a latecomer when it comes to adopting new technology. Why? It’s an industry that’s led by people. Your servers, chefs, bartenders, hoteliers. It’s people that bring hospitality to life. And for Simpson, AI and smart technology isn’t here to replace the important role personality brings to hospitality, it’s here to help manage the behind-the-scenes administrative details that can help free up time to spend on guest experience.

I discovered this on a recent webinar led by UKHospitality and SONA – an all-in-one workforce management system created by Ben Dixon. It’s software that aims to modernise and revolutionise shift management, holiday bookings and more to meet the needs of fast-moving industries.

The discussion between Simpson and Dixon touched on some interesting points – how can technology help those who work in hospitality? Why does consumer behaviour differ between OOH and retail when it comes to pricing? And finally, why smart businesses will use technology, but should retain its people-led approach.

Using AI

So, when it comes to adopting technology, the questions are which tech? Why? How does it work? And, inevitably, how much does it cost?

For foodservice, smart operators will invest in technology that better deploys their employees to work more effectively.

For example, you’re a business with multiple staff managing different divisions – stock management, payment and operations (shift management). Each will likely be analysing their own data, but is each data set interrogated separately or together?  Technology, and to some degree, AI has the ability to identify insights that affect each data set quicker.

But is AI coming for your job? The simple answer would be no.

My key takeaway from this webinar, you don’t use technology to innovate the hospitality sector, but rather make it run more efficiently.

Other Key Points to Consider

  1. Hospitality doesn’t make sense to economists. Businesses can lose customers by reducing the quality of their hospitality offerings to make savings, more than if they raised prices.
  • Takeaway: consumers value quality, and the experience that comes with eating out of home. The margin you can acquire as a business is elastic. This can’t always be seen by technology.
  1. Humans see behavioural patterns.
  • Takeaway: technology may show sales as on the up, but can it see consumers disheartened by a 4-deep queue at the bar? Nuance is hard to capture with traditional models. Humans need to add insight, and context to any data produced by technology.
  1. Technology is to show where process can become more efficient.
  • Takeaway: it’s there to do the data-pulling and insight generating tasks that your staff need to do, but don’t have time to do. Whether it comes to hotel management, and improving systems around delivering room service, or forecasting expected busy days based on weather or factors like payday. The data is to help arrive at optimum business success.
  1. Whilst retail and food businesses are both to some degree on the high-street, they operate in different ways.
  • Takeaway: consumers try and ‘win’ the meal deal – the biggest pack of crisps, the most expensive drink for the cheapest price. This does not always translate in the OOH market. Hospitality doesn’t add value in the same way as retail, it’s not a simple transaction.

Overall, it’s not always about optimising efficiency. Using tech smartly doesn’t just come down to replacing jobs with AI. Smart operators will look to technology to see how it can bring value to its employees, whilst at the same time acknowledging that the hospitality sector is valued for its human-facing service – topic explored on our previous blog here.

Smart technology doesn’t just mean AI either. From digital targeted ads to SEO, GEO, and more, jellybean offers a range of digital services that can help your business!

Get in touch with us today to find out more.

Caitlin Hynd
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