Setting up AI based guest-centric hospitality service

If you enjoy great hospitality in any Hotels, Resorts or Restaurants you have visited to, you tend to become a loyal guest and your loyalty can drive recommendations and in term increased revenue for those resorts and restaurants.

This is true for all types of hospitality business big or small. Larger chains have more customers and in turn more performance paradigm while smaller operators have less. But the goal of providing great hospitality probably remains same for all.

Historically it was found that hospitality industry always have a tougher time maximizing reputation, revenue and the customer experience.

AI is changing all these. With the ability to provide smart computerization of existing processes, deliver valuable customer insights and optimize supply chain process, AI is driving the makeover of traditional hospitality service to receptive, guest-centric hospitality.  AI is changing the traditional hospitality landscape with an assurance of enriched reputation, increased revenue and superior customer loyalty.

Recently I am working on the makeover of hospitality service for one of our client having a chain of resorts and restaurants. I must express that it’s a great learning for me.

My learning from this journey is immense.

Undoubtedly to meet better consumer satisfaction, hospitality industry across world must elevate their operational process and customer services by assimilating AI based analytics. But I realized that before anything first important step is to understand thoroughly what hospitality industry means to you. Then narrow down the wider latitude of your understanding to the specific area of hospitality you are dealing with as hospitality industry has wide spread umbrella. Unless you are not very specific on the targeted hospitality service you are working with, your resolution approach might tend to be very generic. If you don’t through this brainstorming you may witness some immediate rewards from your deployed solution, but this will definitely not propagate a sustainable growth in long term.

It is obvious that AI adoption can improve the revenue stream and customer service in the hospitality industry. AI can be used for all the below five areas individually; like ‘AI in Hotels & Resorts’ and ‘AI in Restaurants’. It depends on how to choose the applications of artificial intelligence in the industry to provide business leaders with an understanding of current and emerging trends, and also choosing the use-cases that may change the way business is done.

1)     Customer experience

2)     Supply chain

3)     Operation

4)     Marketing

5)     Customer engagement

Personalized experiences boost revenue and loyalty. Starting from booking till check-out you can use AI to make a personalized experience for the guest. In hotels and resorts tailoring your offering with thoughtful personalized experience such as a guest’s preferred newspaper, toiletries, pillows and views keeps guests coming back. Restaurants can use virtual assistants to respond to customer inquiries and to process and customize customer orders. Recently some restaurants are using AI-driven robots to increase capacity and speed of food preparation and delivery.  You must have heard that AI-driven humanoid robot waiter called Pepper that processes customer orders, provides product recommendations and allows customers to make payments via their mastercard account by using the robot’s handheld tablet. Lots of applications are available which use AI to help consumers choose meals based on their eating preferences. Some restaurants are already integrating AI-driven Kiosks to reduce customer waiting time and enhance the customer ordering experience.

You can read some practical use of AI in food industry from this link:

https://emerj.com/ai-sector-overviews/ai-in-restaurants-food-services/

The moment we hear supply chain we start think about Lambert Model. For example, customer relationship management, Demand management, Manufacturing flow, Supplier relationship, product development and commercialization, return management, order fulfilment and customer service.

These all are the foundation of any supply chain management, but trust me designing a supply chain eco-system for a Hospitality Industry is way beyond these seven pillars. In hospitality industry the key differentiator of supply chain is setting a hyperlocal eco-system of suppliers based on the demand and supply of foods items. AI can play an immense role on this based on consumption prediction and most popular menu selection. Just in time supply will help serving best and fresh food with minimal waste and also much simple warehouse/store management.

Hotels, Resorts and Restaurants across the globe must upgrade their operational system and services by integrating intelligence-based predictive analytics. AI can help remarkably for determining optimum occupancy, rate optimization, reducing food wastage etc. According to the research and markets (the world’s largest market research store), the growth of AI in food and beverages industry between 2019–2025 is forecasted to attain over 65.3 percent of CAGR. For instance, recently, an artificial intelligence bin is launched by a UK based startup — Winnow. This AI-bin uses a camera and smart scales to find the types of food that are being discarded. It is capable of reducing the food wastage by 50 percent and many businesses have availed this benefit.

ML works on massive data that helps in detecting types of food and their demands to manage them efficiently. The data of previously wasted and sold food can help in forecasting demand. For example, Hitachi came into a partnership with a hospital to avoid food wastage – which can also be used in hotels and restaurants. The food not consumed by customer not only increases wastage but also poses damaging effects on business condition. For this, they have mounted the camera on the trolleys which are used to collect the trays. The way Hitachi implemented the food waste AI tool is by using camera which clicks the pictures of leftovers. These photographs are later examined with the applications of deep learning (another subset of AI). This will help in identifying the patterns in leftovers which were not possible with the human mind alone. The industry can have their own food inspection system by deploying the algorithms of deep learning. The deep learning models are capable of analyzing the defects in the sample quality. Sample images used here are a base to find out the overall quality of the food sample. The data of food that is thrown away most of the times can be an appropriate foundation to make new policies. It will help in reducing the supply of such food items.

AI-bin Winnow, let’s explore it some more. It is the first bin based on artificial intelligence technology to support the hospitality industry in its target of reducing food waste. It has reduced food waste with machine learning algorithms. The smart scales, AI-guided smart meters, and camera are used with AI technology. The system has been programmed to identify the thrown food. Whatever goes into the bin is not recorded anywhere. With the help of winnow vision, the companies can detect the food items that are discarded the most. Moreover, the AI-based bin is capable of calculating the environment and financial cost of the thrown items automatically.

The first global chain of hotels that started using winnow systems is IHG resorts. Within six months, 50 percent of waste was reduced by IHG resorts through all the installations.

Pointless to mention that With Artificial Intelligence Marketing strategies are becoming too specific. With AI marketing, there are no longer questions about whether or not a prospect is ready, the data provides the answer. With AI solutions, sellers know exactly what consumers are thinking, saying, and feeling about the brand in real time. Similarly, with the onslaught of social media available (and the AI to analyze it), business can truly understand what customers are feeling. AI can tap into the abundance of consumer data hidden in keyword searches, social profiles, and other online data, for smarter and more effective digital ads. This plenty of data can also help feed consumer profiles. AI solutions provide owners with deeper knowledge of consumers and potential clients, enabling them to deliver the right message, to the right person, at the right time. Communicating with consumers at the precise ‘decision-making moment’ can help directly impact customer decisions. AI helps owners to monitor these social exchanges and other open forums to identify any relevant conversations and decide appropriate customer engagement strategy.

The implementation of AI and ML in hospitality business is already moving the industry to a new level, enabling less human errors, less waste of abundant products, costs saved for storage/delivery and transportation and well as happier customers, quicker service, voice search, and more personalized orders. 

It’s right time embrace AI in hospitality industry for guest-centric hospitality service.