Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 78 | Page 83

FINAL WORD to guests of course , but also to back of house staff including front desk , room service , conference , kitchen , engineering , security and management who can use technology to improve the guest experience . Investments in the back end will ultimately drive overall operational efficiencies . This could be anything from upgrading equipment to better allocation of shifts and resources .
Easier said than done ? Not necessarily . The sector was already in a healthy place with its transformation pre-pandemic , bringing in new technologies and moving computing power to the Edge . Our studies showed that 55 % of hospitality businesses were running production applications or trials of AI before COVID-19 struck for example .
But applying new technologies at speed is a big ask , especially considering the sector was already struggling with the additional data that these technologies produce – a quarter ( 25 %) of hospitality IT leaders told us last year that there was too much data for their systems to handle . Imagine how that must look now .
Avoiding slowdown
But why does it matter ? As hospitality businesses accelerate their Digital Transformation , they also face an exponential uptick in data . While this presents exciting opportunities to create better , more differentiated customer experiences ( to name just one
Investments in the back end will ultimately drive overall operational efficiencies . This could be anything from upgrading equipment to better allocation of shifts and resources .
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