Recently, a panel of hospitality technology experts discussed the very timely question 'Digital Workers in Hospitality – What Does the Future Hold?'.
Here are my thoughts:
By 2025, over 85 million existing jobs will be lost due to the seismic shift toward AI, robotization and automation, according to WEF, McKinsey and OECD.
Last year labor costs exceeded 1/3 of hotel revenue and AI, robotization and automation are becoming increasingly appealing to hotel owners and operators.
Whether we like it or not: robotization and automation are coming even to our technology-averse hospitality industry. Digital workers in the form of robots are being used at thousands of hotels worldwide and already replace numbers of hospitality employees in performing dangerous, repetitive and mundane jobs like housekeepers, porters and baggage handlers, concierges, security guards, line cooks, room service, bar tenders, waiters, etc.
Next gen technologies like AI, robotics, automation are solving a number of issues in our industry:
- Solve dull, repetitive, dirty or dangerous jobs.
- Solve high turnover of trained employees (20%-30%)
- Lower labor costs
- Increase productivity
- Solve labor shortages
- A few examples of robot implementations:
Housekeeping robots Rosie by Tailos clean guest rooms 20 percent faster and public areas up to 80 percent faster than human housekeepers.
Keenon Robotics has deployed 100,000 waiter, cleaning and butler robots to 60 countries worldwide.
So, robots and other digital workers are coming to a hotel near you, no doubt about it!
Max Starkov
Hospitality & Online Travel Tech Consultant & Strategist
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