Artificial intelligence can lead to surprises in all kinds of places where an account would have been considered arranged.
The use of AI by Hertz (and European car rental company Sixt) To scan on damage to cars, which is then charged for the customer, is a new application of the technology that unnoticed in consumer life. But it will not be the last unexpected adjustment to the travel experience thanks to AI.
Experts say that consumers would expect companies to use comparable technology in the future in the future if they are not yet.
“As companies try to automate loss prevention and operational efficiency, we witness the rise of what I call 'algorithmic auditing' – the systematic implementation of AI to previously overlooked inefficiencies or losses of the Wake Forest University School of Business. Because of the New York Times, the start of what McKeen describes as a broader transformation and new error line, in the service economy.
“The implementation of these systems reveals a fundamental tension between operational efficiency and customer satisfaction and equity,” said McKeen. The question is not only whether AI can detect a scratch on a bumper of a rental car. “It is whether companies must charge customers for every microscopic imperfection that algorithms can identify, but human judgment can reasonably be overlooked as normal wear,” he said.
McKeen says that the dialogue between service agent and customer about costs will increasingly include a new term: “The machine says.”
Scanning the hotel room
Hotels are taking place through these changes, according to Jordan Hollander, co -founder of HotelTechRePort.com, a research platform that helps hotels to find new digital and AI products to improve efficiency.
“I have seen more hotels experimenting with AI about operations, but not entirely in the same way as Hertz uses it for automated damage detection and invoicing. Having said that, we are not far away,” said Hollander.
For example, some hotels already use AI-driven sensors to check air quality and activate fines for smoking or vapen in rooms. But Hollander warns that the sensors sometimes cause false positives.
“If someone who uses a hairdryer or aerosol spray – and guests are hit with $ 500 costs without ever illuminating. It is not difficult to imagine how that could go to the south,” Hollander said.
But unlike the example of car rental, most hotels have not yet automated the invoice step.
“They use AI more to mark potential problems – such as a room that smells, linen that does not meet the standards or maintenance problems – and then walking in a person for the last call,” said Hollander. For now, the AI acts more as a very remarkable assistant than as a judge and jury.
“But it is clear that hotels are going in the same direction,” he said. “Between the computer vision that can detect damage or wear in a room, and AI that analyzes guest behavior or room conditions in real time, the technology is already there.”
Risk of the recoil of the customer
In a hospitality industry where trust is everything, there are reasons for hotels to be careful. To date, many hotel operators use AI to improve things such as domestic efficiency, energy consumption and guest messages – but they are careful about when and how it influences the guest directly in a way that can be seen to harm the experience.
“There is a risk of recoil when hotels are going to invoice that guests only on the basis of what an algorithm says. The moment a guest gets a load and does not get a direct answer about why or how it is verified, you are in dangerous territory,” Hollander said. “If guests feel that they are being viewed or nickel and dimmed by a machine, it completely undermines the relationship,” he added.
According to Hollander, recent experience in the hotel industry offers at least one warning story, referring to a tailor -made Alexa for hotels. “Years ago it was hot tuners, and that never really started for this reason,” he said.
A Hertz spokeswoman said CNBC that brings AI uniformity and consistency with the cash register.
“For years, vehicle damage has caused confusion and frustration. The process was manual, subjective and inconsistent, and that is not good enough for our customers or our company,” she said.
She added that with digital vehicle inspections, Hertz “much needed precision, objectivity and transparency for the process, it is given more confidence that they are not charged for damage that did not take place during their rent and a more efficient resolution process when damage takes place.”
Of the rental points scanned so far, more than 97% did not have invoicable damage, according to Hertz, and damage incidents fall at locations with scanner equipped.
The Hertz spokeswoman acknowledged that the new system is still a work in progress.
“We know that change in this scale takes time, and we listen, learn and improve every day. As we said from the start, our goal is to improve the safety, quality and reliability of our fleet from the start and to create a more consistent rental experience for our customers.”
AI excels in pattern recognition, but where the shortage can fall, the nuanced decision -making that has historically characterized good customer service, according to McKeen.
“What makes these systems particularly problematic is the erosion of contextual judgment,” said McKeen. Traditionally, business relationships relied on human discretion to navigate gray areas such as “When does a shifted band represent normal use versus taxable damage? When satisfies a cordial part in a restaurant are a hungry customer versus waste?”
Other companies will keep a close eye on Hertz to see how the AI experiment comes out, he said, and then immediately jump into the chances of winning when it is determined that the use of technology does not chase customers away.
Automation versus 'Absolute Overkill'
The use of AI for recovery of costs is not yet widespread, because companies have not discovered the balance between customer trust and the implementation of AI, and so far not outweigh the potential loss in loyalty, said Chuck Reynolds, director of Lek Consulting and a member of the digital practice of the company.
The key for companies to implement these tools to pay for costs is transparency. “Although the chance for AI is huge, organizations should think about embedding it as a Copilot, not a police or enforcer,” said Reynolds. Sustomeren accept AI as part of the experience, he added, if companies are honest, visible and design the AI experience with empathy.
“AI must have customer focus built into its core,” said Reynolds, and companies must keep people in the process to supervise and ignore the AI if necessary. “Organizations that do this without thinking the entire process will have challenges with internal acceptance and acceptance of customers,” said Reynolds.
Customers should expect that more of the technology that Hertz uses in various institutions, according to David Rivera, Professor Hospitality and Tourism at Flagler College. In addition to hotels, the future can include restaurants that use AI to specify plates to guarantee accurate invoicing. But Rivera says that all this is done for the purpose of operational efficiency instead of punishing the customer. The use of AI in hospitality is evolving from passive data collection to active use of real-time decision-making aids, said Rivera, and that includes things such as monitoring your rental car or how much you will fall into the mini-bar in your hotel room.
“The common thread is increased operational efficiency, improved guest satisfaction and automation of traditional manual tasks, with a layer of accountability and transparency for both guest and provider,” said Rivera.
However, not everyone is on board with that opinion.
“This trend is absolutely overkill with AI solution options,” says Daniel Keller, CEO of Cloud Infrastructure Company Influx Technologies, which offers data collection and data analysis tools. “This specific use of AI does not increase efficiency; it investigates customers of service companies in small margins who want to suck extra money from guest experiences.”
