AI & Resilience – Learnings from the Innholder Scholars Autumn Meeting
Generative AI, responsible use of AI and the power of resilience were just a few of the exciting topics discussed and presented at the Innholder Scholars Autumn Meeting, which took place this month.
Following a welcome and introduction from Grant Campbell MI IS, chair of the Innholder Scholars, Nick McQuire, director of product management for AI at Microsoft, kicked things off with his presentation on AI and its ever-increasing importance for everyone – including hoteliers:
“AI is the fastest growing business we’ve seen here at Microsoft,” he explained.
“It’s the fastest platform shift ever too, with over 100 million users of ChatGPT in just 3 months. To put that into perspective, it took Facebook 4.5 years to reach that number.”
Nick also focused on the increased use of Generative AI in businesses – the ability to create new written, visual and audio data from prompts of existing data. Nick stressed that businesses are using this technology and there will be increased competition, even in the hotel world, between those utilising the technology and those that aren’t.
New technology also comes with new risks, which was the focus of the next presentation from Professor Keeley Crockett, professor in computational intelligence at Manchester Metropolitan University and chair of the IEEE Technical Committee SHIELD.
Keeley stressed that while AI comes with numerous benefits, proper precautions must be taken as with any new technology looking to be adopted. She explained it can still be a messy area when it comes to legislation and who is accountable should things go wrong, but that hotels need to consider where responsibility lies when looking to adopt AI into their businesses.
Following a short break for some networking, the focus shifted to that of economics with a presentation from Kate Nicholls OBE, CEO at UKHospitality, who provided an overview of recent political developments affecting hospitality, as well as recent actions and updates from the association.
Building on this was a presentation from Joe Nellis CBE, professor of global economy at Cranfield School of Management. Joe delved into what the UK and the wider world is currently experiencing, as well as what we are likely to see in the next few years:
“It feels in recent years we have been bombarded with challenges, one after an another. However, things are beginning to improve yet we must remember it is a marathon – not a sprint,” Joe explained.
The day also focused on several updates from key partners across the Master Innholders community, including charities Room to Reward and the Savoy Educational Trust, as well as close partner, The Institute of Hospitality.
Rounding out the day was a talk on the power of resilience from Ben Stocken, founder of training and coaching company West Peak, who talked through his own journey and experiences around resilience, and how they can be applied to the world of hotels.
Ben explained there are five key steps to encouraging resilience in both yourself and your teams, and that using your ‘why’, controlling the controllables and delaying failure were just some of the ways to help achieve this.
Speaking on the success of the event, Grant Campbell MI IS said:
“To have the opportunity to come together as an aligned and engaged group for a fantastic day of development is incredibly beneficial.
“The learnings on resilience, productivity and how we can lead this, is undeniably well received and the committee and I could not be more proud of the response and engagement from our alumni. Thank you as ever to all who contributed to the success of this day.”