Can AI solve the labor shortage in the hospitality industry?
Due to the global pandemic, hospitality businesses were forced to close for months which caused many employees to leave the industry. Many experienced hospitality professionals have found employment in other sectors that offer more stability and better wages due to the tsunami of furloughs and layoffs that slammed the industry during the pandemic peak.
There is undoubtedly a hunt for technology solutions that can lessen the industry’s labor crisis, and this is where Artificial Intelligence comes in.
AI is now widely used to provide intelligent, convenient, and well-informed customer support. With more restaurants and hotels looking for innovative methods to improve their operations and performance, AIs can help in the overall business sustainability by identifying the needs of the industry. We are on the verge of profoundly transforming the hospitality industry, from lowering operating costs to increasing efficiency, raising revenue, and improving customer experience.
Here are three AI usage in the hospitality industry that can help resolve the labor shortage in the sector.
1. Chatbot AI
This AI development has shown significant success in the hospitality industry. This intelligent assistant works nonstop, 24-hours a day, seven days a week, which is why they are being used in the hospitality business because it demands round-the-clock client service.
Chatbots may be built with AI to resolve hotel client concerns. On the other hand, other chatbots respond to fundamental questions such as where you can order pizza or other services.
Other chatbots assist passengers in planning their journey simply and efficiently. There are two sorts of chatbots: the first utilizes manually coded prepared answers, while the second employs natural language processing. The second type is a little more intricate, and it addresses more complex problems.
You may significantly cut your response time and wait time by using AI chatbots. Even better, client complaints are resolved at a high rate, and the need to email or speak with an executive is minimized.
2. Fare forecasting AI
Some passengers plan their journey and strive to travel at the cheapest time possible. They can utilize services like travel fare forecasting AI to determine the best time to book their flight––this makes travel for them more efficient and cost-effective, which directly influences the hospitality industry.
You can take advantage of this strategy to try to anticipate the outcome. For example, if a flight to the location where your business is located is available, you can target those travelers with your hotel’s marketing campaign. You can also make special offers to pique their attention and so increase your bookings.
Predictive systems like this AI use machine learning to predict patterns based on past responses at specific periods of the year and how travelers reacted to special flight offers.
You can use them to assess movement over shorter and even longer periods and then base your marketing tactics on those projections. These methods can benefit your business as well as make traveling more inexpensive for travelers.
3. Scheduling management AI
In the hospitality industry, managers and business owners face several challenges. Scheduling workers for several positions over different shifts each night is a daunting endeavor. Managers in the hotel industry contend with high personnel turnover and demanding customers, creating a situation where human error has no place when planning team schedules. Sorting and maintaining such volumes of data is not only difficult but also time-consuming.
Scheduling AI has a huge potential. It enables employees in the hotel business to have a say in their shift schedules, which improves efficiency for managers who must ensure that the correct workforce is in the right place at the right time. It also utilizes a powerful and efficient workload management tool that ensures employees’ welfare is being attended to correctly process PTO and work schedules. The correct AI for you can provide custom solutions designed to address your hospitality business’s immediate workforce scheduling needs.
The bottom line is that AI has developed technologies to tackle the hospitality industry’s labor shortage problems––by streamlining tasks, automating some work and mundane duties, allowing employees to focus on more important tasks without affecting the overall workflow. The strategic use of AI technology alongside human supervision can produce superior results, especially in an industry with a workforce shortage.
Related article: Best Strategies for Managing Your Workforce
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NOTE
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About Are Morch
Hi, I am Are Morch. Your Digital Marketing Coach and Customer Experience Expert helping hotels create unique and unexpected experiences by freeing up resources to focus on new ideas through value innovation and a growth mindset.
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