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  • Writer's pictureBernhard Lermann

What is AI's place in customer service?



The new public access to the AI-based language model ChatGPT establishes a paradigm shift in the field of Artificial Intelligence. It is Generative AI that uses natural language, can answer almost any question and solve a wide variety of tasks. ChatGPT interacts in real time with its users.


Could an artificial intelligence also answer questions from hotel guests in the future? This is what the developers ChatGPT have to say about it: "ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but wrong or nonsensical answers."


For an accurate service experience, you can't have ChatGPT answer guest questions directly. At least not yet. However, there is a way to combine ChatGPT with a system that keeps the AI from giving incorrect information about the hotel.


How can the hotel industry use artificial intelligence in the near future?


Increasing computer power this century has led to significant developments in artificial intelligence, which has entered our daily lives in a variety of ways. For the first time, humans are living alongside artificial intelligences. They are in our smartphone, understand our language, assess our health for insurance, assemble our cars or trade our money. Most artificial intelligences are specialists, they can do a certain thing really well.


The development of artificial intelligence is currently progressing faster than ever before. Experts speak of a paradigm shift, the next evolutionary stage of AI, which we will have reached in 2023. The model behind GPT-4, the latest model from OpenAI has 100 trillion parameters.


What's new above all is that the technology is now available to everyone. Now the tools are publicly available, some of them free, and part of everyday life. ChatGPT is reportedly soon to be integrated into Microsoft products such as Word and Outlook, for example. For instance, the tool could soon help us answer emails faster.


Will chatbots change online search?


Generative AI may radically change web search for the foreseeable future, and with it the way potential guests find hotels online. The world's largest search engines are starting a race to use generative AI algorithms. Online search may become conversational and interactive in the near future. It may soon be less about clicking links and exploring websites and more about sitting back and asking a chatbot.


However, there are still some problems with generative models, such as this one from ChatGPT: The talkative AI always sounds very confident. Even when the answers are completely wrong. ChatGPT can't distinguish between facts and made-up information.


A new generation of hotel chatbots


For these reasons, it is currently not possible for ChatGPT to be used directly as a hotel chatbot that answers guests' questions about booking, hotel or travel planning. This is because in customer service it is essential that the answers are correct and consistent. However, Large Language Models are a base technology on which to build chatbots and voice assistants.


DialogShift is developing a new generation of hotel chatbots that combine two capabilities: the natural interaction, generative and holistic nature of Large Language Models and the ability to provide consistent and hotel-specific responses. Several language models from OpenAI are used in combination for this purpose. Among them GPT-4, so that the chatbot reliably communicates the information and so that its Tone of Voice matches the hotel and the brand. The chatbot writes the answers itself, of course.


AI technology is creating new resources in the hotel


2023 is likely to be the year when we see what meaningful applications are possible based on these algorithms. And what about the human copywriters, designers and hotel employees? Should they worry that artificial intelligence will soon take over their jobs?


Certainly, collaboration between humans and AI will become commonplace. In the future, creatives will become more like strategists and curators - supported by AI. Hotel employees will become caregivers and companions, responding to the wishes and concerns of guests on site. Technology will expand the capabilities of employees. It will give them more resources again for the human component of service, which is at the heart of the hotel and hospitality industry. But frictionless digital service is also a centerpiece. Elegantly combining the two is the goal.



DialogShift is the leading company in the German-speaking region when it comes to chatbot applications in the hotel industry. With its innovative technology, the company has already received several awards, including the IHA industry award.


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