A recent WorldPanel discussed this important question, I believe there is only one technology that will make a real impact in hospitality this year: artificial intelligence (AI).

The question is, what kind of AI? Will that be ChatGPT, an exposed-to-the-public AI chatbot that has become a social media sensation? A bot that is exceptionally good with language thanks to a training process that included digesting billions of words scraped from the Internet and other sources?

In a recent "interview" between HFTP CEO Frank Wolfe and ChatGPT, the bot itself identified the following areas it would affect hospitality: chatbots, virtual assistants, language translation and email and social media copywriting.

AI applications like ChatGPT or Google Bard may be cute and entertaining, but I believe in "embedded" AI in the form of AI-powered fundamental hospitality technologies like PMS, RMS, CRS, CRM, CMS, chatbots, virtual concierge, adtech, customer service and issue resolution apps, back-office operations, etc.

By integrateting ChatGPT with Ava, its automated virtual assistant, Navan (formerly known as TripActions) provides an example of how to use embedded AI.

Business travel admins and managers can now use Ava as a personal assistant to perform tasks such as personalized data analysis, business travel carbon footprint analysis, corporate card management, etc.

Max Starkov
Hospitality & Online Travel Tech Consultant & Strategist

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