The Hybridisation Of Hospitality

Julia Aymonier writes about the need for professionals with quantitative skills and knowledge of Artificial Intelligence in the hospitality industry

Change has never been as rapid as today. The constant evolution in technology, at an ever-increasing pace, is changing our world and our working environment as never before. The impact of technology is reshaping occupations and new job categories are beginning to appear on the market requiring “hybrid” skills. Not only will staff have to know how to do their traditional job as in the past, but they will also be expected to have knowledge of the technological world that is evolving around them. The combination of the two is creating hybrid positions that are in great demand but for which there is little supply. An example of this hybridisation is marketing roles that require understanding of sophisticated statistical analysis tools and even data science.

Add to this, the competencies required to work in an environment which uses Artificial Intelligence, in one of its forms, the skills gap becomes even wider and the hidden gem who possesses this combination rarer.

The hospitality industry has not been spared from this disruption. Over the last decade, technology has transformed marketing, reservations, guest relations, service and many other aspects of this industry. With the introduction of Virtual Personal Assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa to assist with in-room service; Relay, the service robot by Savioke, and a multitude of algorithms processing huge amounts of customer data, the industry is struggling to keep up with the pace.

Employees in this industry observe that jobs, which involve simpler, easily automated tasks, are disappearing rapidly as they are more and more frequently being undertaken by technology. The dwindling number of unskilled jobs means that there is an urgent need to retrain and reskill these employees to leverage the technological changes and to prepare for the future.