HOW DOES ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AFFECT THE TOURISM INDUSTRY?
Technological innovations support increased efficiency in every industrial sector. Artificial intelligence (AI) is among the most important innovative solutions. Intelligence is measurable and clearly defined. The science of AI has already achieved many significant results and is used in several fields in different industries. The meaning of AI is not clearly defined; however, the term is most often associated with practical advantages and development. Beyond many positive practical possibilities, AI has brought several new ideas into our everyday lives like ‘sharing economy’, ‘Internet of Things’ or ‘Internet of People’. The tourism industry is no exception of the many sectors affected by AI: different smart systems and chatbots are used in travel agencies and air transport companies. Predictions about the near future foresee the development of personalised solutions, which will lead to further re-arrangement in the technological revolution that has been going on for decades in the tourism industry. The process of continuous progress seems to be unstoppable, and that leads to the big question: how can we adapt to the new world brought to humanity by AI?
Understanding intelligence has always been an important question for humanity. In the ancient days, Aristotle was among the first ones to explore the realm of human intelligence by contemplating on our judgement about right and wrong. Intelligence can be characterised in many different ways. The term can refer to a way of thinking or can be defined as a synonym of acumen. Intelligence is independent from culture, and has many different types. When talking about intelligence, we can talk about emotional, logical, cognitive, musical any many other types of intelligence. The possibility of creating artificial cognition — the initial idea of AI — was conceived during the process of differentiating the many types of intelligence.
The results of AI-based development can be seen in every industrial sector, especially in the manufacturing and ICT sectors. There are various options of further evolution, both in theoretical development and industrial application. According to the general strategy of product development, almost every object and device will be accessible through the internet, which will result in the realisation of IoT. Every device that is capable of bidirectional communication belongs to the system of IoT. Unlike today, the devices of the future will communicate in a bidirectional way. These smart devices and state-of-the-art products will be able to communicate with a central hub or with each other multidirectionally. These devices transfer the data and information created during their operation towards other technical devices, and are able to share them with various ICT solutions through networks, databases and cloud systems. As of today, safe robust data handling, personalised differentiation, personalisation and sufficient decision making are the key challenges related to AI. As a result of constant data collection and systematic data handling, all information should be collected in one system eventually.
Tourism is a primarily business-to-consumer (B2C) centred industry, with a target group of individual consumers. The supply and demand sides of the industry usually meet through internet networks, which requires a great deal of co-operation and trust. In the past, several providers competed for the consumers and the basic definition of travel also had a different meaning. Not so long ago, the typical decision making process included a visit to the nearest travel agency and choosing from the options offered by the company. Another typical solution was to choose from mail-ordered catalogues. If the consumer couldn’t find the right option, they would go to another travel agency and compare the different options. Today, this process is dramatically shorter: with the use of smart devices, the whole process of ordering, paying and travelling can be completed within minutes.
Personalised offers and tailor-made solutions make travelling more cost-effective; ensure that the reservations are made with regards to personal preferences; offer the favourite foods and drinks and preferred programmes for the user; in short, they enable the organisation of the perfect trip, based on the traveller’s demands. The new decision-making system (including Virtual Personal Assistant — VPN) is also beneficial for the service providers because they can align their operation to the existing capacities. AI knows personal preferences and individual demands much better than travel agencies. Travel agents might know more about the market as a whole, but no matter how long they’ d been working together, they cannot know all the preferences and motivations of the traveller. In addition, AI takes into account positive ideologies like sustainability and climate change awareness, which at the same time represents a challenge and a huge opportunity for increased efficiency in the tourism industry. In today’ s fierce competition within the industry, AI offers a huge advantage; however, not every stakeholder in the tourism industry is ready for its exploitation.
In the future, the uniform offers of today’ s supply side of the market will be undertaken by personalised services, provided with the help of AI. The big question about today’ s technological boom is whether the process will continue in the long run. The further expansion of artificial intelligence has a positive impact on the future of the tourism industry sector.
Source: Vadyba Journal of Management 2017, № 2 (31) p. 85–90 ISSN 1648–7974
