he international hospitality and tourism industry is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing industry. Globally, it brings in US$7.6tn and creates 292 million jobs, which accounts for almost 10% of the global GDP and one out of ten jobs, with the expectation to provide more jobs in the coming years, due to its projected steady growth (World Travel & Tourism Council, 2017; Statista Research Department, 2018; OECD, 2018). AI helps people to work smarter, resulting in better business outcomes and requires them to develop new competencies and capabilities, from technological expertise to social and emotional skills, as well as creative skills (de Leede, 2016; Ivanov and Webster, 2019).

AI is about using intelligent machines designed to work, react, learn and train as humans to augment human intelligence and perform human tasks, through their capacity and capability to retain and analyse more data real-time to complement human effort (Bringsjord and Govindarajulu, 2020). 

A form of skills transfer in which humans train algorithms, by which computers and robots can learn from to complement or enhance human intelligence (as decision-support systems) and/or perform human tasks.


AI adds intelligence to the hospitality industry through AI-enhanced hotel and tourism operations and management systems, which has redefined the hospitality industry to an intelligent hotel and tourism industry (Lai and Hung, 2018).

t has also reshaped the models of tourism and hoteling by disrupting the traditional system, as this technological innovation enables customers to access reliable and accurate information that allows them to customise their requests, make reservations and purchase hotel and tourism products and services directly through technological platforms, rather than dealing with a hotel, booking agent, or professional travel agent (OECD, 2018; Zlatanov and Popesku, 2019; Buhalis, 2020). It makes booking and travelling more affordable and convenient, and pricing and services more standardised, resulting in a shift in the key to creating competitive advantage in the hospitality industry. It is now about the degree of hotel and tourism intelligence and information gathered from technological platforms (Lai and Hung, 2018). Hotel and tourism businesses now derive competitive differentiation through the quality of intelligence that enables them to truly understand and comprehend customers and their specific needs (and preferences), and identify ways to meet those needs with a personal touch, to differentiate themselves from competitors (Pizam and Shani, 2009; Bellou and Andronikidis, 2009; Jooss, 2018; Zlatanov and Popesku, 2019).