The Ethical Dilemma - Swapping Staff for AI in the Hospitality Industry

Artificial Intelligence is changing the world at a startling rate, growing at around 38% each year. In every industry, new technologies are emerging that will change the way we work forever. The world is being forced to keep up or be left behind. In some cases, this means people are losing their jobs because AI can do many things better and quicker than a person can. 

When we relate this to the world of hospitality, does it mean that jobs will no longer exist? Does it mean that there will be mass unemployment rates? Well, not exactly. 

Most hospitality business owners no longer have a choice about whether to implement automation processes. At this point, it's a necessity if they want to stay competitive, profitable, and offer great customer service. But there are right and wrong ways of doing it. 

As a business owner, you need to be transparent with your staff and let them know the changes you’re implementing and how they will help them perform their jobs. 

Artificial Intelligence and automation don’t need to replace the human aspect of hospitality, nor should they. But they can enhance the workplace, make it more efficient, and give copious benefits to the business and the staff. 

AI Benefits for Your Staff

If you ask people who work in hospitality what the main problems are, you’ll generally get the same few answers. Processes seem overly complicated. They could do with an extra pair of hands to provide the type of service they’re proud of. Mistakes happen all too frequently, etc. Now, AI helps the hospitality industry solve all these problems without replacing any jobs. Here are some ways that AI streamlines workflow for the staff and how they benefit from it. 

Simplified tasks

Your primary job as a hospitality worker is ensuring the customers are happy with their experience. To do that, you need to manage about 800 things simultaneously. Essentially, it would be best if you were a professional juggler to be good at your job in hospitality. But if most of those duties were automated (which they easily can be), you can focus back on the people. Bring them their food, answer questions, give recommendations, clear tables, and even laugh and crack some jokes now that you’ve got the time! 

Your boss wants to see you doing this, giving people a great experience so they come back. Automating mundane and complicated tasks simplifies your duties, and you get more enjoyment out of your workday.

Less room for error

As someone who used to work in hospitality many moons ago, I couldn’t tell you how frustrating it was when an order was wrong. So frequently, a customer would give their order, I’d write it out, pass it to the kitchen, and they’d prepare it. Then, when it came out, the customer said, ‘That’s not what I ordered’. When it was exactly what they ordered, they’d just forgotten. Now, that wasn’t all of the time. Sometimes, I would take an order down wrong. The kitchen couldn’t read my writing; a docket would go missing or be put in the wrong place in the queue. But regardless of the cause, mistakes were common, leading to a lot of waste. 

What I wouldn’t have given 15 years ago to allow the customer to put in their own order. To have it sent directly to the kitchen, they don’t have to guess what it says, and the customer can’t say that it’s not what they ordered because they ordered it themselves! This is what AI in hospitality does. It makes a process more efficient with instant service and minimizes error and waste with more accurate orders. It’s a win all around for the customer, staff, and business.

Reduces short staffing stress

One of the biggest stressors for staff in hospitality is when they are short-staffed. They need to work much harder to get the work done, and they won’t be able to engage with customers the way they want. The whole business suffers when you’re short-staffed, and the customers aren’t going to have as good of an experience. By implementing AI, automation software, and automated food delivery solutions, the time-consuming and non-customer-facing tasks are taken care of. Although you still need enough staff to work the floor, at least if you’re one or two people down, the team on deck can focus all their attention in one place rather than running all over the venue.

Overall happier staff

When the main pain points of hospitality staff are taken away, your staff will enjoy their job more naturally. They’re not going to dread coming into work knowing they’ll be run off their feet or that they’ll get in trouble for getting an order wrong. Instead, they’ll know they get to engage with the customers and have a very happy boss.

AI Benefits for Hospitality Business 

The benefits of implementing AI into a hospitality business are everywhere. You’ve probably even experienced first-hand from a customer perspective how much better your experience is in a place that uses AI. But here’s a quick rundown of the benefits of a hospitality business from a human perspective. 

Staff retention

We’ve already covered how AI benefits hospitality staff and leads to an overall happier team. And what that means for a business is better staff retention—as recorded by the 86% of hospitality shift workers from a recent Deputy study who can identify ways to improve their work environment. 

We probably don’t need to explain to business owners why staff retention is important, but here's a quick rundown for those reading who aren’t business owners. 

• Save on hiring costs

• Save time in reduced performance for training periods

• Better customer service and customer experience
  

Better customer service & experience

When people go out to eat, they want three things: great food, great company, and great service. To a customer, a great experience is ordering in their own time, not leaving their table with their friends and family to order food or drinks, and having someone around to answer their questions. 

By allowing customers to look through the menu at their own pace, order in their own time, and make customizations without feeling annoyed, they get much more enjoyment out of the experience.  

Increased profits

Increased profits are a big benefit when implementing AI into your hospitality business. The Director of The Henchman in Queensland said their sales doubled within a week after they implemented Ai-Menu products. It automatically upsells for you, and people feel more comfortable ordering what they want if they can do it privately. Now, if your software allows you to increase your profits significantly, you wouldn’t need to worry about the cost of your staff providing great customer service.

Process improvement

Processes can always be improved. We’ve spent enough years doing things the hard way to understand that. Providing a solution for this is what AI and automation software in hospitality have been specifically designed for. With solutions like online ordering, an order goes directly from the customer to the kitchen. You automatically know a bill without needing to calculate it because it’s all been recorded from the moment they ordered. No end-of-day tallying or clients getting overlooked because the staff is too busy running orders to the kitchen. With streamlined processes, you get happier staff, customers, and owners who all have more time on their hands.

Conclusion

When a business owner is transparent about implementing AI, employees are generally quite excited about it. They know it will make their jobs easier and eliminate most of the problems associated with them. AI doesn’t need to replace hospitality staff. What it can do, though, is streamline efficiencies, allowing staff to focus on customer service and giving clients a better experience at your venue.