The majority of hoteliers believe artificial intelligence is impacting hospitality now or will within a year, according to a new report.
The research from Canary Technologies, involving 327 hotel professionals, revealed that 61% believe the impact on the sector will be this year while 39% are more hesitant and believe the technology will not make an impact for two years or more.
Overall, 73% of hoteliers believe AI will have a significant or transformative impact on hospitality, it's just a question of when and how.
The report also revealed how much of their IT budgets the responding hoteliers plan to devote to artificial intelligence. Of the 61% that see an impact this year, 42% said they plan to invest between 10% and 25% of total budget.
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Of total respondents, 36% said they plan to invest between 10% and 25% on AI while 16% said they would invest 25% to 50% of their budget.
Unsurprisingly given the availability of resources, AI investment tends to be greater according to the size and scale of hotels, the report found.
For example, two-thirds of hotels with 150 rooms or more are devoting at least 10% of their IT budgets to AI while 26% of hotels with 500+ rooms said they plan to invest half their IT budgets in the technology.
And, 60% of brands, management companies and ownership groups believe AI is already making an impact or will within a year, possibly related to the economies of scale they foresee, compared to 49% of individual properties.
Canary Technologies recently announced BWH as a customer for its artificial intelligence-driven guest management system.
Kaitlyn Wood, guest services manager at Best Western Plus West Edmonton, said she believes AI could transform the hospitality industry now. She said the hotel was already benefitting from Canary’s AI guest messaging tool.
Others are taking more of an explore further approach. During an interview at The Phocuswright Conference in November, Garine Ferijian-Mayo, chief commercial officer of Sonesta International, said that while it does come up on calls, not enough is known about AI's impact and “what we could do today that could impact performance.”
Key concerns for hoteliers with AI include whether it will “genuinely add value to operations” as well as costs related to implementing the technology, according to Kabit Bhagat, president and chief operating officer of management group Kamla Hotels.
“Overall, the hesitation often stems from balancing the promise of innovation with the realities of cost, risk and readiness.” he said.
Meanwhile, a new aparthotel concept coming to Las Vegas this year seems to be all in on AI. Otonomous is described as the only hotel in the world to be powered by Tesla.
Respondents in the study also highlighted which areas of the business they believe AI will most impact. The technology will have a medium to high impact on pre-booking guest engagement according to 89% while 83% said it would have a medium to high impact on guest communications.
Similarly, 83% said it would have a medium to high impact on revenue optimization while 80% said the same for reputation management and 82% highlighted fraud detection as an area where AI would have a medium to high impact.
When it comes to IT purchasing, a third of respondents in the report were sole decision makers, 24% made the final decision with input from staff, 25% helped reach the final decision and 17% provided input to the final decision.