Unlocking the Power of Chat GPT for Hotels

Words Design HotelsDate 29 February 2024

AI is helping us to revitalize communication, push creative boundaries, and streamline tedious tasks. But how do we tap into these benefits?

An important question for the hotel industry is how to bring together the human touch—this amazing, in-real-life service—and new forms of AI technology like ChatGPT. How can these two elements still provide a warm, humanly experience for guests?

We sought insights from a leading innovator in digital transformation: Shane O’Flaherty, Microsoft's Global Director of Travel, Transportation, and Hospitality. Discover his perspectives on how smaller hotels can leverage AI to their advantage in this interview excerpt below.

How can the smaller-scale hospitality industry ready themselves for this rapid progress in AI technology?

O’Flaherty: I think that one of the big challenges in the world, and especially in the travel space, is labor. Today, hotels have to do more with less. How can they really embrace technology for their frontline workers to allow them to do more with less? Communication collaboration platforms that drive more operational efficiency, for example, allows them to do that. Then let’s consider ChatGPT. It provides them insight to information to better serve guests.

The goal is to get rid of the mundane tasks and to minimize or eliminate paper in the hotel. This allows employees to meaningfully focus on the guest. The human connection is the most important thing, especially in these boutique hotels where you walk into a sense of energy, into a unique vibe. The employees are all part of that. This is how you ensure that your teams really have that ability to keep their heads up and their eyes on the guests, and to drive that more emotional connection with them.

Could ChatGPT also help hotels train their employees, or help them make better use of AI technologies?

O’Flaherty: As we move towards a kind of metaverse, we’re seeing companies training their employees in the virtual world—that includes ChatGPT. I can ask any question that I want— whether it be about process or content —and that can be part of training employees in the virtual space. Equipped with those answers and that information, by the time they hit the real world and practically apply this new knowledge in situations, they are already 80% to 90% of the way there. To pre-prepare them in a way. So that’s what’s happening in certain industries. Not necessarily in the hotel space because it’s always slow in the trajectory of technology, but we’re starting to see it in other spaces of the travel sector that will ultimately come to the hotel sector.

There’s also that younger, tech savvy guest. Hospitality’s use of AI will impact its relationship with this demographic. What is the best approach for hotels?

O’Flaherty: At Microsoft, I look at the tip of the spear of this in the gaming world because the way they interact with younger generations and the gaming tactics that they use to drive engagement, it's really all emotional. It’s engagement with content that drives a better, human experience. I think if you move that into the travel sector, it could be phenomenal. The travel sector in general is very transactional oriented. When you check in a hotel today, beyond your mobile key, they basically tend to digitally ignore you.

When it comes to this younger generation, many of today’s hotels don't really engage with their consumers digitally on property at all. That has to change, and AI is a great tool that can help hospitality pivot into new ways of doing things.

How does your team at Microsoft envision any of this?

O’Flaherty: Well, I can give you an example of how we see things evolving. In the future, AI assistants will evolve to where we’ll have our own AI systems. I’ll be able to walk into these independent hotels that have their own AI system. Those two ecosystems are now talking together and they understand my intent, what kind of traveler I am, and why I’m there. The two ecosystems will work together to drive a better experience for me through content. That’s directionally where we want it all to head moving forward.