The Future of Hospitality with Technology

If you aren’t aware, an Artificial Intelligence (Ai) technology, ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. This is a text based Ai that has the capabilities to write essays for students, create computer code, and pass graduate level exams. It is also available to every single one of us through the internet. The rise of this kind of technology has caused one question among many industries, “Will this replace us?” Though teased about as long as any of us can remember, these solid steps towards an answer have caused serious consideration. Our discussion today will be more geared towards a practical hypothetical world where service workers perform in tandem with AI and other technologies. In the 70’s, everyone imagined flying cars, so let’s put our seatbelts on and have that excited skepticism once again.

Striking the perfect balance between efficiency and accommodating the needs of a guest to create a memorable experience is the key goal for the hospitality industry. Many corporate hospitality groups are deeply invested into adding efficiency by incorporating technology. We must ask ourselves, how far is too far?

Check in systems in first world countries may be fully ran by facial recognition in the coming future. If you’ve flown out of America recently, you’ve surely noticed you don’t need to fill out paperwork. Once you give your information- to board the aircraft you simply need a facial scan. In a hospitality specific instance, all you’d need to do is attach a credit card to that recognition and check ins at a hotel or resort becomes 20 minutes shorter. Remember when people used to pay in cash for every transaction? Someone would hold up the line by counting change. Once cards entered the transaction space, many skeptics said that they wouldn’t catch on. Who really cared to save 10-20 seconds? Using hindsight, the prospect of saving 10-30 minutes at a check in makes a lot of sense.

The next level of this tech-infused hospitality focuses on the food and beverage portion- specifically a control of consistency of the product you receive. What does the process of getting a mixed drink look like when you don’t have to wait in line? Machines already exist that can make simple mixed drinks. On a more imaginative scale, think of a machine, or multiple, that all connect to a full bars worth of liquors and mixers. At your request, an instant response is activated, and your drink is made within 30 seconds. Your margarita is momentarily sent into an ice cold agitator, hoping to mimic Kishor’s shake on a humid gazebo night, and you’re hoping the calibration is wrong and you get a Kishor pour. Jokes aside, after the drink is shaken, you see a glass get stamped from the top to provide a salt rim. Your drink is poured, to the tippy-top, and a cute lime garnish is carefully attached to the side by an apparatus. The Sleek tablet on your table lets you know that your drinks are ready at the 3rd pickup station. You say thank you, and the voice responds back, “No thank you Mr. Smith, and I love your orange tie today.” The drink you received will taste the same way the next 10 times you order it, anywhere in this imaginary resort. There is no good or bad bartender, you’ve received exactly what was ordered.

Not one for a mixed drink? Imagine with wine- there is a database that benchmarks what the peak profile of each individual vintage and maker is. With a cork needle and a tube, you can now have a computer rank the wine you’re going to receive or alert you to grab another if it’s corked. Attach that computer with a vocal AI, and you have a sommelier with endless knowledge, that can respond in real time and even recommend a wine you’ve never heard of. That recommendation would also be perfect for your palette based on your past dinner and drink choices. If humans could map our entire genome, it’s not absurd to suggest that we could map out wines, at the least, common wines in circulation.

Both drink examples, as interesting as they seem, are missing one main component- The human connection. I don’t think we will ever reach a West World level of human-like machine, so many will still yearn for a comforting face and non-robotic motions. Though the front of the house seems to be more replaceable in direct job duties, they are less replaceable in the aspect of personality and a warm smile.

On the flip side of things, the bigger question is “How can food production be automated?”. Some tasks can be automated already, though they may need some human help. Machines for many years have been able to cut onions, peel potatoes, and other simple tasks. A big investment is currently being put in fully automated fryers for fast food restaurants. Without getting into a long explanation, the problem with automation in food, even in the simple tasks, is that you need people to load, replace, and take ingredients at different stages of the process. Who brought the fries, and plated the fries for the machine? Now for each person you try to imagine being automated, there is that equal number there to make sure the machine is working correctly, and taking the food from its finished version to a plate. Moving past a simple example of frying French fries, we have to look at more complex food tasksand ask if there really is a chance at replacing them. Busy steakhouses can see a grill cook preparing and looking over 30+ different steaks at a given time. Along with that, the fry cook is frying 4 different items, plating the steaks, and garnishing the plate. This doesn’t account for another cook making 5 pans of creamed spinach, 4 of which have separate allergy restrictions, all while searing 3 different kinds of fish. Where robots or computerized parts fall short, is that they struggle when tasks differ- that’s also the hardest part about being a cook. Though I think we will see more automation in the basic parts of our industry, we are a lifetime or 10 away from seeing a high end restaurant near a full automation level.

The examples given leave a lot out. How many workers need to be hired to watch over these machines? What must their experience be? How much will we pay these workers?

As in all early stages of technology, each question leads to ten more. The discussion of AI always brings out the tin foil hats in all of us. Some jobs like writing, teaching and sales are more susceptible to a complete takeover, I am confident that hospitality jobs at a higher level will stay human for a long time to come. However, have you noticed no matter how early or late you’re at the GPYC, you’ll always find Chef Eric here? No one has ever proven to us that he isn’t a robot.

As we talk about technology - I’d like to offer a recipe for the future of a robot takeover. As we set up base camp for the human resistance, deep in the forest, we can enjoy this recipe for a homemade chex mix from the time before. Most chex mix recipes are similar- but many people forget they can go to the store and make a large batch to last a few weeks.