The AI Revolution: How AI is Transforming Employee & Guest Experiences
Every day, technology sales teams enter an office for any of the leading Hospitality companies, claiming artificial intelligence will become the heartbeat of their future efforts. They present impressive credentials and work that adds to the aggressive technology transformations already underway. However, these leaders worry about ever-increasing technology budgets, internal skill sets, and incomplete roadmaps for sunsetting the legacy technology that has driven their business for years.
This is happening today, across every sector of our industry. These same leaders are searching for practical ways to apply AI without breaking their budgets while assisting their employees and improving guest experiences.
Where to Start?
Today, artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept in hospitality, it's a present reality that's fundamentally reshaping how hotels, restaurants, theme parks, and other hospitality segments operate. For your business to capitalize on this AI revolution, you must plot a path for your employees to learn how to harness it. AI’s abilities to accelerate predictive analytics, chatbots, personalization, efficiency, and guest satisfaction are only as good as your teams’ skills. Let’s start with the basics:
1. Develop AI governance and ethics guidelines
Establish clear policies about data, use cases, and quality control for AI tools. Train employees on responsible AI practices, including verification of AI-generated content where human oversight is essential.
2. Identify AI use cases specific to each role
Key departments must map out where AI could streamline workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and enhance decision-making.
3. Build AI literacy across the organization
Start with basic education about what AI can and can't do, demystifying the technology through workshops, lunch-and-learns, or online courses. Help your teams understand AI as a tool that augments and enhances human capabilities rather than replaces them.
4. Foster an experimental mindset
Create safe spaces for employees to work with AI applications without fear of failure. Consider setting up innovation labs, pilot programs, and cross-functional AI exploration teams.
5. There is no “one size fits all” AI tool
Most companies have varied needs. You could have training on ChatGPT for writing assistance, AI-powered data analysis tools, or industry sector-specific AI applications for Marketing, Sales, or Guest Service.
6. Reskill for higher-value work
As AI handles routine tasks, help teams develop skills that complement AI such as problem-solving, strategic thinking, and complex guest service functions. Focus on unique human capabilities that AI amplifies rather than replaces. Identify enthusiastic early adopters who can become internal champions and mentors to drive broader adoption more effectively than mandates.
How can AI Improve your immediate business needs?
The key is making AI feel accessible and relevant to employees' daily work rather than an abstract technological shift happening to them. Once you have these basic programs established, here are some practical ways AI tools can improve your immediate business needs:
1. Conversational AI and Chatbots
Most of our industry leaders use some version of chatbot assistance, which can’t handle all the queries, which in turn annoys the public. Today's conversational AI systems use natural language processing (NLP) to understand context, intent, and even emotional tone in guest communications. Advanced systems can even detect when a conversation requires human empathy, such as handling complaints and smoothly transferring guests to human agents with full context. These sophisticated systems can handle complex requests like "I need to change my dinner reservation from 6 PM to 8 PM and add a vegetarian option for my guest”. At Myridius, we are at the forefront of this work, and we believe that in 5 years or less, typing for most service needs will be obsolete.
2. Voice AI and Smart Assistants
Voice-activated AI assistants in hotel rooms are becoming increasingly sophisticated. It moves beyond basic commands like ‘adjusting temperature’ or ‘playing music’; these systems can now process complex requests like "Book me a massage for tomorrow morning and ensure housekeeping knows I'll be sleeping in.” With AI-integrated property management systems, spa booking platforms, and housekeeping schedules, it promises to fulfill multi-step requests seamlessly. As guests begin to interact with these systems more often, expectations for similar service will arise in other sectors such as restaurants, theme parks, airlines, cruise and vacation ownership companies.
3. Predictive Analytics and Personalization
AI systems analyze vast amounts of data (travel patterns, food orders, spending habits, service requests, and social media activity) to predict behavior and guest preferences with remarkable accuracy. Machine learning algorithms forecast guest activity likely to occur based on their past behavior, current weather conditions, past spend and similar guest profiles. This gives hospitality companies the ability to predict and drive a variety of profit activities that expand wallet share, including lodging reservations, dining orders, sports like golf, and other repeated behavioral patterns that drive guest action and loyalty.
4. Operational Planning and Staff Optimization
Leading theme parks and cruise lines are using AI’s predictive capability to forecast guest traffic, and visitation patterns, and predict table turns and capacity demand at a variety of restaurant venues, including quick serve and fine dining. AI can predict guest behavior and traffic patterns, allowing companies to manage staff surges for high-volume periods, optimize scheduling, or create supplemental traffic patterns to allow freer guest movement during highly congested timeframes. Revenue managers will capitalize on these behaviors to impact pricing strategies for key services during these demand periods, improving profitability.
5. Dynamic Personalization
AI doesn't just remember guest preferences; it adapts to changing behaviors and circumstances. AI system recognizes contextual shifts and adjusts recommendations accordingly. For instance, if a consistent business traveler suddenly books a weekend stay with family, it suggests some family-friendly activities instead of business amenities. At Myridius, we already see restaurant companies and theme parks create dynamic guest profiles that evolve with each interaction, building an increasingly sophisticated understanding of individual preferences and needs.
Restaurants are beginning to expand personalization, analyzing ordering patterns, ingredient costs, and seasonal availability to optimize menus in real-time. Machine learning algorithms can predict which dishes will be most popular on specific days based on weather, local events, and guest demographics. AI-powered inventory management systems prevent food waste by accurately predicting demand and automatically adjusting orders from suppliers. Personalized Dining Experiences are emerging from analysis of guest dietary preferences, past orders, and even social media posts. This creates personalized dining recommendations, highlighting dishes they're most likely to enjoy while noting any dietary restrictions or allergies.
6. Emerging Technologies
Computer vision AI can analyze guest body language and facial expressions to gauge satisfaction levels in real time. While privacy concerns limit current applications, future systems might detect when guests need assistance without being asked. At Myridius, we are using Generative AI to create personalized travel itineraries and bookings, adding custom experiences and even tailored entertainment content for guests using our AI Travel Agent.
AI-driven Hospitality is leading the change
Artificial intelligence is beginning to alter the entire Hospitality landscape, driving new levels of personalization and anticipation of guests’ needs and desires. Today, the most successful hospitality businesses are those that teach their teams to understand and adapt AI to meet the needs of their daily job activities, thoughtfully augmenting human capabilities.
Additionally, the companies that choose simple implementations, mastering AI for early wins, will have a significant head start when they engage AI for more sophisticated employee and guest interactions. Leading Hospitality companies that embrace AI while maintaining their commitment to human hospitality will set themselves apart in an increasingly competitive market. AI shouldn’t solely be a human replacement strategy; it should augment and improve the good work your companies are already doing for your teams and their guests today.
Enhance your Hospitality Business with Myridius
The AI revolution in hospitality is in its infancy, however, Myridius has been engaged in meaningful and practical AI work in our industry for several years now. Reach out to us and let’s talk about how we can accelerate your AI journey today, not a year from now.