A note on the applications of artificial intelligence in the hospitality industry: preliminary results of a survey

Abstract Intelligent technologies are widely implemented in different areas of modern society but specific approaches should be applied in services. Basic relationships refer to supporting customers and people responsible for services offering for these customers. The aim of the paper is to analyze and evaluate the state-of-the art of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in the hospitality industry. Our findings show that the major deployments concern in-person customer services, chatbots and messaging tools, business intelligence tools powered by machine learning, and virtual reality & augmented reality. Moreover, we performed a survey (n = 178), asking respondents about their perceptions and attitudes toward AI, including its implementation within a hotel space. The paper attempts to discuss how the hotel industry can be motivated by potential customers to apply selected AI solutions. In our opinion, these results provide useful insights for understanding the phenomenon under investigation. Nevertheless, since the results are not conclusive, more research is still needed on this topic. Future studies may concern both qualitative and quantitative methods, devoted to developing models that: a) quantify the potential benefits and risks of AI implementations, b) determine and evaluate the factors affecting the AI adoption by the customers, and c) measure the user (guest) experience of the hotel services, fueled by AI-based technologies.