Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning: Human And Machine Co-operation in Hospitality And Effects of Coronavirus

Luke Okelo

Software engineer and researcher in next-generation technologies including mixed virtual and augmented reality, blockchain platforms, and low power air quality sensors.

On 18th June 2020 it was an honor for me to present at the Women In Hotel And Tourism Travel (WHTT) Weekly Simulcast the work AfricArXiv is doing on deploying A.I. Chatbots to assist in digital archiving of African scientists preprints.

Together with me on the panel were 3 other speakers, namely Fiona Gillen, Vice President for Marketing at The Hotel Network; Nina Barfoed Petersen, Documentation & Robotics specialist at the ARP-Hansen Hotel Group; and Brendan May, Managing Director at HERA by Hotel Resbot, Germany.

Brendan May's contribution was focused on the capabilities of AI in general. He talked about the main problems the HTT industry is facing i.e. low demand and high costs. He argued that humans and machines should cooperate as there are some things humans are good at and other things machines are good at.

Nina Barfoed Petersen talked about her particular business case within Arp-Hansen Hotel Group as a Robotics Specialist, with an operational background. She sought to allay fears of what Hoteliers were afraid of when it comes to implementing new technology.

Ms. Gillen focused on the use of Machine Learning to personalize customer experience by converting booking requests into more direct bookings whilst reducing costs. This has been her experience at her organization

WHTT (womenhoteltraveltech.com) is an organization whose mission is to support female leadership in the Hotel, Tourism and Travel industry through education, mentorship and career development.

The focus of this particular weekly live simulcast was how A.I. and machine learning could provide effective change in working processes in and out of the hospitality and travel-tech industry.

Below is the presentation

You can watch it on YouTube here.

In total the number of views during this live simulcast on LinkedIn was 632 views and it was watched by people from around the world including London, Barcelona, Madrid + NYC.

The interview style during the panel was roundtable, and the moderator Ms.Rita Varga (also initiator of WHTT) made sure the discussion did not stray away from WHTT's core values i.e. transparency, respect, inclusion, adding real value, and thinking global acting local.

The viewing audience was allowed to be involved in the conversation as much as was possible, as facilitated by their questions raised through the moderator

Each panelist was given 1-2 minutes to introduce who we were, the company/organization we worked for, what we did

I am grateful for this opportunity given to me by one of AfricArXiv’s founders Dr. Johanna Havemann to share my experience working with A.I. chatbots for the work we do at AfricArXiv.

It is not often one gets a chance to sit and deliberate with people of the same interest on the other side of the planet, and for this I am forever appreciative to AfricArXiv.

I hope that through this opportunity I was able to further interest people on a global scale to find out a bit more about the work that we do.