The rise of artificial intelligence technology has the potential to affect so much of the hospitality industry, and one hotel tech expert believes the biggest opportunity to use AI is to enhance company productivity.
In a recent episode of the CoStar News Hotels podcast, Kurien Jacob, partner at Highgate Tech Ventures, said that a lot of the buzz about the use of AI in hospitality might be considered mere hype. But he doesn't think that tells the full story.
"There is actual validation of productivity and gains that is going to transform the overall landscape, and not just hospitality," he said. "As in any wave like this, you're going to have companies do extremely well, and you're going to have certain companies fail. And that's just part of reality."
Jacob said it's about identifying the winning strategies and finding out what types of AI integration works best for your company. But AI isn't going anywhere.
"It's not a trend, but it's a long term or a tectonic shift that is going to change the way we live and adapt in the future," Jacob said.
With labor costs accounting for 30% to 40% of hotel expenses, AI tools that optimize productivity have a huge opportunity to grow profit margins. AI programming doesn't take time off — it works 24 hours, seven days a week, Jacob said.
As hoteliers integrate this technology, employees can be moved into supervisory roles "because the technology is going to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting," he said.
And for the most part, the hotel industry isn't yet proactively implementing the technology, Jacob said.
"Everybody feels that something is coming," he said. "It's like a tsunami is on its way, we've got the report, but nobody's really getting prepared for it."
For more from the interview with Kurien Jacob of Highgate Technology Ventures, listen to the podcast embedded above.