The Role of AI in Developing a Sustainable Hospitality Industry

For the last two decades, AI has been instrumental in transforming several industries. We have leveraged its capabilities to analyze large data sets and develop data-driven approaches using machine learning & statistical methods. GenAI's advanced language processing empowers a more sustainable, intelligent, and future-ready hospitality industry.

Sustainable Guest Experience Management

GenAI consumes large data sets, and machine learning models can analyze behavioral and sentimental patterns. This enables hotels to retain guests by curating personalized offers, promotions, and loyalty subscriptions. These personalized product offerings enhance guest experiences by understanding their travel or food preferences, ensuring a superior hospitality experience.

Underneath this system, cloud-based technologies such as Property Management Systems (PMS), point-of-sale (POS) systems, CRM, Sales and Lead Management, and Loyalty Management are integrated into a Customer Data Platform (CDP). This enables an enterprise-level LLM to learn from guest behavior patterns continuously.

GenAI-Powered Chatbots

With an enterprise LLM in place, hotels can develop GenAI-powered, multilingual conversational chatbots that effectively serve as smart concierges for guests. These chatbots offer personalized assistance by leveraging data from sales and marketing assets, CRM, loyalty programs, pricing channels, and other hotel applications.

Key attributes of a GenAI chatbot in the hospitality sector include:

• Customized interactions: The capability to adjust responses according to guest information such as previous visits, individual preferences, and loyalty status, thereby enhancing the overall experience.
• Immediate information access: Offers current details regarding room availability, amenities, local attractions, dining reservations, and more.
• Multilingual capabilities: Enables communication with guests in various languages, promoting international engagement.
• Automation of tasks: Manages routine activities such as check-in notifications, room service orders, and basic changes to reservations.
• Concierge-style recommendations: Provides suggestions for local dining, activities, and transportation options tailored to guest interests.
• Feedback acquisition: Collects guest feedback and performs sentiment analysis to pinpoint areas needing enhancement.

Benefits for hospitality enterprises include:

• Enhanced customer service: Delivers round-the-clock support, efficiently addressing guest inquiries.
• Greater operational efficiency: Automates mundane tasks, allowing staff to concentrate on more intricate requirements.
• Improved guest satisfaction: Fosters a more personalized and fluid guest experience.
• Potential for revenue growth: Can proactively recommend additional services or upselling opportunities based on guest preferences.

Revenue Management, Lead Prospecting, Forecasting, and Marketing

Traditional AI has long been used to trigger multiple marketing campaigns from CRM and revenue management applications. However, GenAI takes this to a new level. Campaigns can now be automatically triggered based on real-time occupancy rates, dynamically adjusting to regional fluctuations and ensuring optimal resource allocation.

Hospitality companies must consistently remain sustainable to become key GDP contributors. In today's customer-centric world, a strong digital presence is imperative. GenAI empowers the hospitality industry to create seamless web—and app-based e-commerce experiences with real-time inventory, pricing, and booking facilities available 24/7.

Furthermore, GenAI-based solutions can be integrated with the entire lead management, marketing, and prospecting cycle to generate highly qualified leads. By analyzing historical data and feeding it into an enterprise-level Large Language Model (LLM), GenAI can automate campaign triggers and promotions for loyalty members and targeted demographics. This will help replace outdated manual methods and optimize revenue management.

Smart Inventory Management and SCM Controls

GenAI-powered consumption matrices are integrated with Supply Chain Management (SCM) and procurement applications can optimize food costs. These applications analyze kitchen ordering patterns and compare them with daily food consumption across restaurants, banquets, in-room dining, and other food service outlets. They then provide chefs and kitchen team real-time ordering suggestions, reducing food costs and waste. Additionally, event forecasts and restaurant occupancy predictions are factored into these recommendations.

Predictive Maintenance – Gen AI Triggered

Similar technology assists engineering teams, maintenance staff, and third-party vendors in assessing the health status of major equipment. AI can predict maintenance cycles by analyzing current usage data, operating hours, resting periods, and wear and tear and suggesting GenAI-triggered periodic self-maintenance checks.

Carbon Emission Tracking and Reporting (Smart Energy Management)

Notably, GenAI, the Metaverse, and Digital Twin (DTX) technologies can be combined to create a simulated environment, allowing hotels to assess and demonstrate the effective use and control of various equipment that play a key role in:

• Energy consumption
• CO2 emission percentages
• Uninterrupted Operations
• Guest Experience

Training Operations and Maintenance (O&M) staff on handling heavy machinery like Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, boilers and chillers, industrial vacuum cleaners and scrubbers, kitchen equipment (ovens and grills), dishwashers, commercial washers and dryers, commercial iron press, passenger and service elevators, landscaping machineries, solar panels, etc., can be easily monitored by capturing earlier usage data, with Gen AI solutions. These solutions can analyze historical usage data and provide an ideal consumption matrix, suggesting thresholds to be maintained for hotels to meet Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards.

These next-gen solutions help gather data from across the hotel ecosystem, providing management with a clear overview of energy consumption patterns and identifying areas for optimization based on occupancy, operating policy adherence, time of day load analysis, KPIs monitoring and tracking and other factors.  This data-driven approach empowers hotels to achieve green certifications and comply with varying geographical standards (USA, EU, Nordic, AU, APAC, and GCC countries).

Integrating existing systems like SAP, AI can automatically trigger actions to maintain emission and consumption standards.

Recycling Waste

GenAI-powered smart applications leverage image synthesis technology to recognize and segregate waste, helping hotel recycling teams operate more effectively. Many hotel chains have their own waste management systems, including initiatives to grow organic vegetables and promote low-carbon procurement. This innovative waste segregation method will help hotels reuse waste, regenerate raw materials, and maintain a sustainable operational cycle.

Conclusion

System Integrators (SIs), such as Tech Mahindra, are developing these Gen AI-powered solutions in collaboration with hospitality clients and technology experts. Several Proof-of-Concepts (POCs) are being tested and deployed to improve the hospitality industry's sustainability and efficiency.

Tech Mahindra is well positioned to help our hospitality industry customers implement sustainability across their facilities by offering and implementing a mix of solution suites. Our suite of digital offerings on sustainable energy and utilities management, coupled with consulting capabilities, will help achieve energy efficiency and improve building performance substantially. We bring a diverse set of solutions like:

• Green building energy management solutions
• Sustainable reporting framework
• Single platform for entire building automation, intelligent services, and sustainability/ESG needs
• Scalable solution to cover the whole portfolio

Additionally, our advisory on the Assessment and Audit of existing facilities, efficiency measures and renewable energy sources requirement, compliance to governance regulations and standards, and assisting in customer energy sustainability and efficient operations through ROI realization and climate goals.