Humans-as-Luxury: AI, Imperfection, and the Next Advantage in Hospitality
At the 4th edition of Summit Hospitality in Lamezia Terme, Italy, technophilosopher Simone Puorto-Head of Emerging Trends and Strategic Innovation at Hospitality Net-sat down with vodcaster Samuele Di Iorgi to unpack how hotels and venues should rethink the relationship between people and machines. The core message was simple and sharp: AI isn't a bolt-on tool. It demands a structural shift in how we design service, roles, and expectations.
For hospitality and events leaders, that means treating AI projects as operating model changes, not feature requests. When automation handles the routine, human service becomes scarce by design-and therefore valuable.
From "add a tool" to "change the system"
Most AI rollouts fail because they're framed as integrations, not transformations. Puorto argues for redesigning processes so humans and machines share work intentionally, with clear rules and guardrails.
- Map end-to-end experience flows and assign each step to "machine-first," "human-first," or "hybrid." Make it explicit.
- Redefine roles: who designs prompts, who audits outputs, who owns guest recovery when automation misfires.
- Set governance: data sources, model oversight, escalation paths, and service-level expectations for both bots and staff.
- Measure what matters: guest effort, resolution time, revenue per staff hour, and "human touch rate" by segment.
Humans-as-Luxury: make human service scarce on purpose
As transactions get automated, the human touch shifts from baseline to premium. Puorto calls this Humans-as-Luxury: reserving human attention for moments that create memory, trust, and status-where efficiency alone falls short.
- Define "human-only" moments: welcome, key milestones, recovery, VIP recognition, and celebration triggers (anniversaries, loyalty tiers).
- Offer a clear upgrade path: automated by default, with optional human concierge, live sommelier, or event curator.
- Price the access: bundle priority human service into suites, memberships, or premium event packages.
- Protect scarcity: cap staff-to-guest ratios for premium tiers so the promise holds up on a Saturday at 6 p.m.
Strategy under uncertainty: plans as hypotheses
With tech moving fast, five-year roadmaps age in months. Treat strategy as a portfolio of testable bets and keep the cycle tight.
- Run 90-day experiments tied to one outcome (e.g., cut check-in time by 40% without lowering CSAT).
- Instrument everything: bot containment rate, handoff quality, and recovery satisfaction after automation errors.
- Keep a decision log: what you tried, what you learned, what you'll change next quarter.
- Fund by stage gates: scale what works, kill what doesn't-no sunk-cost pride.
Governing hybrid teams of people and machines
We no longer manage just people. We manage socio-technical systems where cognition and action are shared across agents. The job is to guide, audit, and, when needed, constrain automation.
- Write a RACI that includes machine agents. Who reviews outputs? Who approves exceptions?
- Set red lines: compliance, accessibility, and fairness standards that automation must meet to stay in use.
- Create audit trails for key decisions: rate quotes, upgrades, declines, and recovery gestures.
- Be transparent with guests: consent for data use, easy opt-out from bots, and a fast path to a real person.
Imperfection is an asset-use it
In optimized systems, the small quirks of human service stand out. Imperfection signals presence, care, and authenticity when done with intention.
- Personal notes that don't read like templates. Slight variability beats sterile perfection.
- Empower staff with "freedom budgets" for spontaneous recovery gestures-no manager approval needed.
- Let experts be human on stage: sommeliers, concierges, planners who tell stories and make subjective calls.
- Celebrate tasteful variance: local rituals, staff personalities, and micro-experiences that don't scale.
What to do this quarter
- Pick one high-volume flow (check-in, RFP intake, banquet changes). Split into machine-first vs human-first steps.
- Define two "Humans-as-Luxury" moments and attach a price or tier.
- Update SOPs: triggers for human handoff, escalation rules, guest consent, and recovery playbooks.
- Train for the handoff: bots summarize context; staff receive concise briefs and authority to act.
- Track five metrics: guest effort, CSAT, human touch rate, containment rate, and revenue per staff hour.
Want practical frameworks and case studies for hotels, venues, and events teams? Explore AI for Hospitality & Events.
Interview participants: Simone Puorto and Samuele Di Iorgi. This interview was translated using HeyGen.
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