SAN ANTONIO — Most conversations about artificial intelligence use in the hospitality industry skew positive, lauding the technology's immense ability to improve operations, the guest experience and more. However, few look at the cost of this technological evolution.
The scaling of AI infrastructure and its rise in use has already made positive and negative impacts on both the hospitality industry and society as a whole. A panel at Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals' annual HITEC event discussed the specific negative impacts and qualified each, discussing where and how the damage is being done.
Having a balance in the conversations about AI is key, said Lyle Worthington, European Union operations adviser for HFTP. As great as AI can be for business, the so-called "dark side" should be recognized, he added.
"It is incredibly important that we understand the repercussions of our actions," Worthington said. "It's incredibly important that we understand both sides of every argument, because that's how we think critically, and that's how we solve problems — only through education. We have educators and discussions so we can steer this shift towards abundance."
The environmental effect
Among the most discussed repercussions of AI's advancement is its effect on the environment. The technology requires a tremendous amount of energy use, and the data centers being built around the world require access to water for cooling its hardware.
"By 2030, we're estimating the data centers running AI are going to use more energy than Russia, and really only India, United States and China consume more energy than these data services use," Worthington said. "We can see the trajectory that this is on, and we can see the impact this is potentially going to have."
Hotels have rolled out sustainability policies over the years, centered around increasing the use of reusable or compostable materials and providing information to guests on reusing towels. As hoteliers implement more AI-powered processes, they owe the guests they serve some accountability and disclosure if they are claiming to be an environmentally conscious business.
"How are you, as hoteliers, going to define what is sustainable in an era of AI in these data centers [using] electricity, power and water like crazy? How are you going to disclose that?" asked Carl Winston, founding director of San Diego State University's Payne School. "Consumers are going to demand it."
Deepfakes, hacking and other threats
As AI advances, distinguishing which images and videos are real and which are AI-generated is becoming increasingly harder, said Rik van Leeuwen, vice president of customer operations for Ireckonu, a Dutch IT service provider for the hospitality industry.
"The question if something is real, yes or no, is getting diluted, and that's the risk that we are facing here," he said.
Burcin Turkkan, a doctoral researcher at the University of Central Florida's Rosen College of Hospitality Management, said that AI-generated content has had a negative effect on the hospitality hiring process. She pointed to fake or misleading resumes generated by AI that contribute to questionable hires within an industry that already has high turnover.
"This is a reality, and that's why I know from the human resources perspective, now they're looking into blockchain system to govern all these documentation and authentication, because it's that serious," Turkkan said.
While some look to the governments to put proper practices in place to prevent the rise of deepfakes and other AI-generated threats, every country has a different approach, which can make it hard for hoteliers to keep up.
"Being a global [company], or even if you're working in two different cultures, you've got two different sets of rules, and you've got to keep up," Winston said, adding that ironically hoteliers are "probably going to use AI for [navigating] that."
Authenticity and AI slop
With generative AI's rapid rise in popularity and with only a few tech companies providing the technology, this poses a problem of individuality and authenticity, Turkkan said. The result is homogeneity; if everyone is using the same AI, everyone is going to sound the same. This is particularly bad for hoteliers who must distinguish their hotels from their competition.
"For your brand, you probably worked for years to create a voice, 'you stay with us, this is what you're going to get,'" Winston said. "That AI leverage that you're using in a lot of aspects of your business now is not as authentic and may not reflect your voice."
How a lot of large language models are programmed is mostly a black box, so users should proceed with caution when it comes to relying on these tools, Worthington said.
In some cases, "the programmers of these systems also don't exactly know why they're answering the way that they are," Worthington said.
The downfall of critical thinking
With the rise of any technology, it replaces the process that came before. Winston gave the example of the calculator. Teachers used to be outraged at the suggestion of students being able to use a calculator, and now everyone walks around with one in their pocket. And no one is worse off for having access to that technology.
But the process that came before AI that the technology replaces is critical thinking, and some studies point to a decline in critical thinking skills in younger generations relying on AI.
"The cognitive offloading — it does have a negative relational impact with cognitive thinking," Turkkan said.
While it's too soon to tell the impact of cognitive offloading in younger individuals, it is a potential threat to the future workforce, especially if the access to AI changes and people can't use it as freely as they can now, Worthington said.
"The people who have grown up in an era where you learn your critical skills, your critical thinking skills at a young enough age are impacted a whole lot less by this," he said. "But for the kids ... you see that their critical thinking scores are significantly lower than they should be, and their dependence on AI is significantly higher than it should be. Maybe that's OK, we can [have] two sides this issue, but what happens when that AI is not available?"
Changes to workforce
AI replacing jobs or significantly changing the workforce has always been debated, but what does that mean for the hospitality industry, which has a persistent hiring problem? When asked what will happen to people who lose their jobs because of AI, Turkkan suggested they can transition into hospitality because there's still a labor shortage.
However, that's not exactly a perfect solution since the jobs hotels hire for typically have a much lower salary than the mid-level corporate jobs AI is expected to affect. Plus, this change is happening at a faster pace than the workforce can keep up with.
"How are we able to catch all these people that will lose their jobs so rapidly [while] industries are not able to transition that fast? Because let's be honest, people aren't really good for change in general," van Leeuwen said.
Winston, who added he still sees his students able to enter the workforce when they graduate, said the human element is still very much in demand in hospitality.
"I just think the jobs are going to shift, and there's going to be plenty of jobs for those who learn the tools, because humans want to interact with humans sometimes," he said.
Turkkan agreed, especially when it comes to hotel jobs.
"In hospitality, we're a people business, so you know the human component will remain," she said. "We are human, and we would like to interact with humans, and in the hospitality, I think at least this industry will be the last one to have to see the jobs declining."