At the annual Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) HITEC event, hotel industry leaders said artificial intelligence will reshape operations and workforce management in the coming years, driven by rising back-office costs and pressure to improve efficiency. Floor Bleeker, a consultant at In2 Consulting and former CTO at Accor, told attendees that escalating operational expenses are forcing hotels to innovate faster, particularly in non-guest-facing functions.
Operational efficiency and workforce changes
Panelists reported that AI tools are already helping hotels improve labor productivity and forecasting without eliminating jobs. Keryn McNamara, chief information officer of Aimbridge Hospitality, said the technology allows employees to "use their time more effectively and make better business decisions," rather than replacing staff outright. She described the shift as an evolution in how work gets done, not a wholesale reduction in headcount.
Scott Strickland, chief commercial officer at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, acknowledged that the challenge for operations teams is matching specific AI solutions to the right problems. "Not all platforms are suitable for every problem," he said. The panel recommended giving staff, especially digital natives, well-defined boundaries to experiment with AI tools while maintaining service standards.
Cost pressure and back-office innovation
Bleeker directly connected rising operational costs to the urgency behind AI adoption. He said these pressures are "increasing the pressure on hotels to innovate and improve efficiency, especially in back-office functions." The implication is that operations departments will face growing expectations to deliver measurable cost savings through technology.
At the same time, AI may change how hotels approach distribution-a topic traditionally outside operations but with downstream effects on property-level workload. Bleeker argued that if AI enables more direct guest bookings, hotels will rely less on brand loyalty programs, potentially simplifying the booking-related tasks that fall on operations staff.
The human element remains central
Despite the push for automation, every panelist emphasized that people remain the core of hospitality. McNamara said that even as technology improves efficiency, "the fundamental nature of hospitality-caring for guests away from home-will remain unchanged." She framed AI as a chance for the industry to refocus on customer service rather than offload it.
Strickland predicted that AI-powered voice booking systems would appear within the next year, creating new interaction points that operations teams will need to support and manage alongside current check-in and service workflows.
Why this matters for operations professionals
The HITEC discussions make clear that operations leaders should start integrating AI tools for labor scheduling, demand forecasting, and back-office task automation now, not later. The technology is not about headcount reduction but about redirecting employee hours toward higher-value work. Those who wait risk being pushed by rising costs rather than getting ahead of them. The message from the conference: people stay central, but the tools they use are changing fast.
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