Lately, it feels like nearly every conversation I have comes back to how fast AI is moving—and how easily we can get swept up in it. It’s important to ask: In an industry that is built on the personal touch, what does all this technology do for those who make hospitality so special?
Here’s why. Hotels don’t run on code. The people who run the hotels. On housekeepers, who are observant. Engineers who solve problems before guests even know that they exist. Frontline teams delivering comfort, care and calm at times when travelers are in need.
In a recently aired episode of The Diary of an CEOSimon Sinek warned against over-automating things that should be deeply human. His point? AI can only scale up information. It cannot replace the nuance and emotion of human judgment. Nuance is the lifeblood of the hospitality industry.
So when we talk about technology—and especially AI—we can’t afford to talk about replacement. We need to speak about reinforcement. Support. Empowerment. The role of tech in hospitality should be to help people do their jobs better—not make them feel like they’re being replaced by a dashboard.
Should we ask: Will this make someone more present? Will it add noise or reduce it? Will it create more space for meaningful interaction?
If we get it right, tech becomes the connective tissue—quietly linking people, teams, systems, and signals. It fades into the background and lets humans do what they can only do: read the room or calm tension.
This isn’t just about improving service—it’s about protecting the experience of work itself. The best hospitality technology helps teams feel clear, confident, and connected. It improves the culture. Stress is reduced. It helps people remember why they started in this business.
Many hotel staff are currently burnt out. They are working with a shortage of staff. They are trying to achieve excellence without the proper support. Technology alone won’t fix that—but thoughtfully applied technology can help. It can take the guesswork out. Streamline handovers. Surface urgent requirements. It can also bring some joy to your job when you do it well.
In this future, I believe. This is not a future where AI takes control, but a world that helps us to tune in deeper. It handles friction so that we can concentrate on the feeling.
And that’s the challenge—and opportunity—facing hospitality today: to keep evolving, but never lose touch.
Unifocus is on the same journey. With the recent launch of XiQ—our reimagined guest experience platform—and the emergence of our new Communications pillar, we’re laying the foundation for a future where technology works in service of connection. It’s the start of something bigger: a hospitality ecosystem where insight, action, and alignment flow naturally—because people are at the center of it all.
Unifocus
Unifocus is the world leader in workforce technology. It serves properties in over 68 countries, in 31 languages. Designed for hotels, Unifocus boosts hotel performance with intelligent analytics that automate labor budgeting and forecasting, delivering precise staffing levels and workloads by streamlining Planning & Scheduling, Time & Attendance, and Operations Management tools. Employees enjoy the seamless communication provided by the mobile app, which includes features like the Shift Genius award-winning shift swapping system and the real-time prioritization for guest requests, housekeeping tasks, and maintenance. Compliance alerts allow managers to focus more on what matters most: increasing guest satisfaction, and creating a productive and engaged workforce. Unifocus will change the way hotel operations are conducted. Visit Unifocus.com today.
