Next week, I'll be in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the technology-focused HITEC conference and HSMAI's Commercial Strategy Week. I fully expect to hear a lot about artificial intelligence.
What I'm perhaps pessimistically not expecting to hear a lot about is specific details on how artificial intelligence is being deployed in practical ways across the hotel industry today. I've heard plenty of grand ideas about what it could do eventually or vague rebranding of existing technologies as AI-based solutions.
Ultimately, the hope is not for less sizzle but a bit more steak.
I know my perspective on this isn't unique. Hospitality tech is just the tiniest sliver of the larger tech pie, and if you look at the overwhelming fervor around AI more broadly, there are plenty of people calling for a bit less "magic" around the topic to avoid a widescale tech bubble.
There have been some bits and pieces of where AI is already a reality in the hotel industry, but from what I've seen, a lot of it is figuring out ways to reuse existing, consumer-facing technologies for generative AI as productivity tools.
Everyone has played around with ChatGPT at this point, and there are plenty of variations and competitor to it across the board now. Google and Apple are among the many high-profile tech companies also promising to grow their AI offerings in a big way in the near future. What that means for hotels is still completely unclear, and I doubt many in Charlotte next week will have the ability to add much clarity to the topic.
I get that we're at that general point in the tech hype cycle anyway. People have heard enough about it that we now want to see and hear more practical benefits rather than potential. But I also know from last year's HITEC expo, that basically every tech vendor in the industry is going to shoehorn AI into their marketing, which just muddies the issue for an industry that's still trying to wrap its collective brain around what the tech means for them in a heavily people-facing business.
If I don't get the answers to my questions next week, I won't be terribly surprised, but I will be somewhat disappointed. Here's to hoping I'm pleasantly surprised, though
Let me know what you think on X, LinkedIn or via email.
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