When it comes to technology trends in the hotel and hospitality industry, artificial intelligence is no longer its own tech vertical. Instead, it’s affecting the sector across the board.
“AI will change everything,” said Kurien Jacob, partner and managing director of Highgate Tech Ventures. “It will literally change everything in the next two years, no matter what. And it's going to touch every part of the industry.”
Here are some of the biggest applications expected of AI for 2025 according to experts in the field.
AI’s early days
Despite artificial intelligence's potential to affect all aspects of the industry from sales and marketing to operations, the hotel industry still has a long way to go, Jacob said.
“AI is far behind in hospitality, and the reason that it is far behind is because of the disparate amounts of data that is siloed across many different platforms and systems,” he said.
Data is the fuel for AI and its large language models, so harnessing that data is key to better optimization. David Sjolander, vice president of HTNG operations at the American Hotel & Lodging Association, said he’s seen progress — and AI can help in data optimization, too.
“It is an industry with a huge amount of data, especially with guests who actually stay in our buildings for extended lengths of time, and we have never done a very good job of leveraging it in just about any way,” Sjolander said. “We've always had way more data than we know what to do with. I think it's getting marginally better, and I think AI will help us with that, but we're still at a fairly low maturity level in terms of data usage.”
Where the hotel industry has already made some progress is in the generative and predictive AI space. Chatbots have proliferated online across the industry and using data and AI to predict outcomes is becoming routine. — But the two applications together can increase outcomes for hotels when it comes to marketing campaigns, more optimized staffing practices and other opportunities, Jacob said.
Other automation trends like robotics are similarly in their early days, with hotels not wanting to sacrifice the human element of hospitality.
“I think where you'll see there is more and more use of robotics is in the back of the house for cleaning things that the guests don't necessarily see or don't care about,” Sjolander said.
Cybersecurity, for better or worse
For the advancement of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword. On one hand, the technology can help streamline safety for massive hotel industry players dealing in sensitive personal data. However, potential hackers have these weapons in their arsenals as well.
“Cybersecurity is always on the list of issues with hotels,” Sjolander said. “How is AI going to make that a bigger challenge? Because the bad guys are going to be using AI to break into systems.”
Sjolander pointed to two large ransomware attacks in the United States against MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment. The heightened awareness following those breaches has meant more awareness, training and engineering to prevent from continued risk.
Jacob echoed the rising concerns within cybersecurity, identifying it as “one of the single most important things threats to the industry.”
“A lot of people are focused on the expense [of] cybersecurity for hotels going up dramatically,” Jacob said. “A lot of bad actors know that hotels are not as sophisticated as other industries and may have lax systems.”
Answering the call for payments innovation
If there’s one part of the puzzle that warrants innovation — from AI or otherwise — it’s the payments process. The process is riddled with redundancies with payment authorization at the times of booking, check-in and check-out, Sjolander said.
“It's not a very smooth process, and we are working on ways to make that a lot smoother and to do it safer,” he said.
Plus, there are other, more convenient payment methods — such as Google or Apple Pay — that have yet to be integrated into hotel payment systems.
It’s a part of the hospitality industry ripe for disruption, but Jacob said it goes beyond just what new technologies can do and calls for a mindset shift. Both Sjolander and Jacob pointed to other travel industry verticals — such as booking ridesharing or flights — that have already solved this problem.
“The biggest issue with payments is not with the technology, but it’s more about the process,” Jacob said, adding that hotels are paying attention to the small percentage of potential fraud attempts and “disadvantaging the 99.5% of people who just want a seamless experience.”