New research by Dr Ian Yeoman, Professor of Disruption, Innovation and New Phenomena at Hotel Management School Leeuwarden sheds light on the role of robotics, automation and AI against a background scarcity of labour in whether technology can be a substitute for labour.
On one hand, the hotel industry face’s chronic labour supply issues in the future as it has to compete with other labour-intensive industries such as retail and healthcare. On the other hand, is the issue of chronic labour supply overrated as productivity gains from new technologies such as AI render the hotel manager of the future redundant. Using a scenario planning framework to investigate the many possible futures relating to the topic, Dr Yeoman published a paper in the highly rated research journal Current Issues of Tourism about the matter, with industry wide strategies for addressing the issues.
The abstract reads:
The purpose of this paper is to explore the future of work by asking the question, ‘is technology a substitute for labour supply?’ Using New Zealand as a case study, a scenario planning methodology was adopted that engaged with leading tourism stakeholders, as part of an Industry Transformation Plan (ITP) process. Four scenarios were constructed, as follows. Scenario 1: Robbie the Chef represents a world without human chefs, where production robots run the kitchen. Scenario 2: West World Holiday Park portrays a popular tourist attraction, offering indulgent experiences shaped by advanced robots. Scenario 3: Weekends Only is a scenario about tourism businesses’ constant struggle for labour, resulting in a smaller but more professional industry. Scenario 4: The Day We Ran Out of Chefs depicts the situation when tourism and hospitality become unsustainable because of labour shortages. The paper concludes with a conceptual framework, capturing the essences of the scenarios which advocates four modes of technological substitution for labour: replacement (full scale replacement occurs as machines are so advanced); experiences (technology creates new experiences); argumentation (applications of technology boost the productivity of workers); and redesign (the production of tourism is redesigned through technology to reduce costs).
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