AI, Talent & The Future of Hospitality - Jacqui Nunley, Salesforce

Josiah: 0:00

Is artificial intelligence going to take all the jobs or is there something else happening? Jacqui Nunley is a travel and hospitality industry advisor at Salesforce, one of the most advanced companies in the world when it comes to AI, and in this episode, we dive into the implications of AI on jobs and talent in hospitality.

I'd love your thoughts on what might be some of the talent or people implications for artificial intelligence, as you're thinking about it now.

Jacqui: 0:50

Look, the truth is none of us really know and I'm going to say that with caution because there are assumptions, there are lots of assumptions there. Are there some jobs that are going to be affected by this? Absolutely. Are they going to affect the hospitality industry? Yes, but will the human component be removed completely? I don't think so, even if you look at recent experiences that have moved me to think a little bit differently about our space. This is kind of like really drawing from the well back up, but I remember one of the stories. Actually, we were at this event together and you might have you might remember some of this, but what really impressed me about the story that I was hearing was that, with COVID in the back, we came back into hospitality and some of our customers took their learnings and started to think about how they use their talent. And we sat down for a presentation where a really well-known brand talked about how some of the roles in their brand were being repurposed. So the role had new responsibilities, all the roles had changed, and one of those examples was the concierge role and they took their learnings from the pandemic. Now, this is the part of me drawing from the well, because I remember going to hotels with my parents and I was like I'm going to be a parent as a child and maybe every once in a while we would go and we would have dinner at the local hotel. And then there's kind of like a bit of amnesia. What happened? All of a sudden, hotels were for travelers and we forgot about the community that the traveler was coming to the hotel to visit or to do business with. So they took those learnings and repurposed the concierge role into a liaison for the community and invited the community back in. And I thought that was brilliant, because you are making sure that you are resilient should anything happen again, because you're part of the community, you're a brand that is there. Why not invite the community back in? So they repurposed his role to bring in the community. Bring the community back in. Isn't that the definition of hospitality?

Josiah: 3:56

It really is. It's amazing and it also takes advantage of the fact that hospitality businesses have this physical presence in their neighborhoods. Right, and it's also a little counterintuitive. But by being very attractive to the people within the blocks around you, you also become more attractive, typically to people who are visiting, and so I think some groups like anus more, with their collection of brands, are starting or doing a job with this, but a lot of people overlook this, and it's a big opportunity.

Jacqui: 4:21

It's a huge opportunity now to kind of like flip the coin and talk about talent in the same sort of aspect. I will draw on one of my recent experiences. So I was in New York for a couple of meetings. I had a few hours. I was sitting in my room and I'm working and I get a knock on the door. Housekeeping comes in. I invite them in. I said I hope you don't mind, I'm just gonna sit here quietly if you need me to move on, move. But with my insatiable need to talk to people and curiosity, I started talking to the housekeeper and I said you know how long have you been here? And she goes all about 20 years. I was like wow, that's a really long time here at this hotel or in the industry, and she goes no, no, in the industry. I said and you've been in housekeeping the entire time? And she goes yes. I said do you like your job? And she goes I love my job. I was like is this a really good brand to work for? And she was like yes, and she was telling me about you know people that she had worked with and she's treated very well. That, to me, is is is really nice to hear. But then she was fixing up the room and cleaning it and I was like, wow, you know, she's done a really good job. I should make it a significant tip. I'm going to tip her. I made the decision and when she was done she was like, okay, ma'am, I'm leaving. And I gave her the tip and the tip was sitting next to me on the desk. So when I gave it to her at the end of the desk you know how those, those menus, and you know pen and a little pad of paper she put her hand down and she straightened the paper. And that's when I kind of noticed this housekeeper is not just good at housekeeping, this is a person who is meticulous with detail. Now, isn't that interesting when we're looking at the people who actually work in hospitality? It's not just about the job that they have, but what skills can you actually take from that role and start to develop into something else? And it just really dawned on me that this is a person who could be kind of given some career growth that allows them to use their skill of really being excellent at detail. Hospitality is a detailed kind of business, of course. Wouldn't it be great to start thinking about the people who work in hospitality and how to develop them in a way that really aligns with either a skill that they have naturally, a skill that they've developed over a period of time, but to allow them to feel a sense of accomplishment as they use those skills to be able to grow within the brand?

Josiah: 7:38

Yeah, it's a great story, but and I think one of the things that is going to be required to apply the insight there Well, there's a number of things I think it's being it's caring about people. Right, you could have just ignored her. Yeah, right, you could have not had a conversation. So it goes back to I care about people, listen to them. You're also very observant, right? Those little things that could be easy to overlook, yeah. But then you're thinking more expansively around. Okay, there's this skill. She's really good in this way. What other applications of that skill might there be?

Jacqui: 8:14

Right. So, as things get more automated with AI, there's always going to be or for the foreseeable future, we know that human interaction is also required, but this is somebody who could have a career path that utilizes a skill that is, you know, overlooked or has been siloed into. Wow, you really clean rooms? Well, you're going to clean rooms. Are we thinking bigger, like the brands who are repurposing roles that have existed for the longest time and taking some form of our experience and bringing that in to recreate hospitality, to recreate it in a way that is still meaningful to guests but also helps the brand evolve into somewhere or into something that you want to be able to interact with, because they have the insight of how these things are changing, of how we're noticing different ways of being able to repurpose skills, and I think that that's just a portion of how we're evolving and the initial anxiety that stops us from thinking further into what we could be doing, instead of what it's taking away.

Josiah: 9:44

Yeah, yeah, well, and if you don't evolve, you die right, and you talked about working with organizations that are thinking not even just about Gen Z. They're thinking way into the future, right of where we might need to go. I'd be curious on your perspective, though, having worked on so many different aspects of the industry. Where would you like to see hospitality go Like? What are some of the opportunities you mentioned, deeper connections to the neighborhood being one potential one? Are there other things that come to mind in terms of where you'd like to see the industry innovate and move towards?

Jacqui: 10:16

There's so many, there's so many. But I I think about our conversation and especially that question around humanizing AI, and I think that the greatest opportunity in that context is really about human beings becoming more human because of AI. So a little bit of inversion there, it's really what allows us to return back to being human and recognizing the human requirements that are needed for hospitality, really focusing in on those to make hospitality experiences better. Because, I'm sure you're going to agree with me, there have been many check-ins where you've had to sit and wait because something's going on with the technology. But in that sitting and waiting, what was the experience? Now, you know that high tech was a few about a month ago at least but it was doomed with a lot of travel woes and we got to share some of those horror stories of our travel with various people who were asking and talking about it, etc. Amongst ourselves in our industry. But what was really interesting was one story that I heard of an airline who had several cancellations, but during the period of a cancellation or a delay or waiting for information, they actually stepped out and talked to people and went up to them and said you know, is there anything you need? Can I get you something? Here's a coupon for a drink, etc. It wasn't so much the coupon, it was the interaction. That's the human bit. The information bit is we have a delay and several passengers who are sitting at Gate X have to wait a certain amount of time. Now how do I operationalize that to deploy people that I have who are available to go and do the thing? Go and interact. Here are the tools, digitally that you can have them scan a QR code for a coupon. Those are the things that I am talking about humanizing our human interaction, and I think that that is the greatest opportunity. Let the technology do its thing. It's going to make our human interactions much more meaningful in some situations.

Josiah: 13:39

I appreciate that you mentioned operationalizing it, because that is an important piece. There needs to be an awareness, you need to put yourself in an environment where you can interact. But if you think about, if you missed that operational step that you mentioned, it almost could be worse. Right, where you are out there and you are not able to deliver, you are just how can I help you? You are telling me that you need some sort of help. I can't provide it. That is almost more frustrating, right. And so I think there is the piece that you are saying that they are making sure that infrastructure, the ability you have empowered your teams. You really got to think through this. It can't just be a pie in the sky idea.

Jacqui: 14:19

Right. So thinking about it is going to require time. Time is freed up by automation and operationalizing your business to be able to take care of the things that really matter. But it's also the understanding of where is human interaction needed versus where is human interaction not needed, because you know that there are plenty of areas where human interaction is a hindrance to a good experience. So it's really about defining that based on the service that you are providing, and doing it in a way that allows you to be able to do it at scale.

Josiah: 15:02

Yeah, well, it comes back to expectation setting right, and this is what we are providing right, this is what we are saying that we can offer you right, and then you are delivering on that and hopefully a little bit above and beyond that right. So you are delighted. But it does come back to that brand promise, and I think that's where there is this interesting connection between marketing and the operations piece I think that you alluded to earlier, where there are many marketing applications of a technology like CRM, but these should not be viewed disparately, where it's kind of like okay, we have a whole process of engaging people, we show up on the property. There is a different process. It's one and the same guest and everything from that very first, maybe digital interaction, all the way through to them arriving at your property and departing. All of that needs to be one process, one database, one suite of technologies, right?

Jacqui: 15:56

Absolutely. If you remember, last October, when we went to the event that we reconnected at, I talked about this. We talked about digital connections without you going to anyone, because it's actually the heart of StationJapan. You think it's about our data. We've thought it through on this right. Yes, I think now it's going to be very challenging to do this in a place where we do something and our team will have to work together. It's really asking what exactly are you trying to get across to your guest or your traveler versus what boxes are you checking to let everybody know that you've done your job? And this is where intention comes in. You know what are your intentions to be able to drive business to you, but what actions are really being taken? And are you looking at your business from just a guest or traveler perspective, or are you really looking at the needs and what your employees need to be able to do to fulfill the responsibilities that they have been employed to fulfill, and what tools are you making available for them to be able to do that? And I think it's a lack of orchestration that creates those situations where, okay, josiah just signed up for our loyalty program. That means I'm just going to flip the switch and now let's just hit him with every single marketing email that we could possibly hit him with. We know that he's based in San Francisco, but let's send him all of this information about Cancun without really knowing whether Josiah is in the predisposition of wanting to get away because he's been doing so many podcasts.

Josiah: 17:50

This is hitting close to home here.

Jacqui: 17:57

This is kind of what I'm talking about. It's really about how are you utilizing technology. Are you utilizing technology in the right way? Are you really aware of what needs to be done in each role and are you developing your talent to be able to address that? It really is a form of orchestration that allows you to be able to run your business like in the right way at scale and efficiently, and it takes human interaction on the employee side as well. It takes technology that actually is intelligent and knows what the guest needs, and then it takes you being able to review whatever is happening and kind of improve on the areas where you might be slipping or the areas that you haven't addressed, and it really is looking at all of those aspects. It's not just a point solution that is implemented and then it's hands-free everything. So we have to start thinking about these things in a better way, more holistically, and the freedom to be able to innovate requires that you have the right sort of environment to innovate in.