Name: Tech-enhanced hospitality: Balancing AI-driven efficiency with the human touch in luxury service
Start: 2026-11-13T09:00:00.000Z
End: 2026-11-13T09:45:00.000Z

About this webinar

Speaker update, 2 October 2026: Iis Tussyadiah is confirmed as the academic speaker. The industry speaker will be announced once confirmed.

Artificial intelligence can support reservations, guest communication, pricing, room allocation, housekeeping and service recovery. Luxury hospitality, however, continues to depend on empathy, professional judgement, cultural understanding and discreet personal care. This webinar examines the operational boundaries between automated tasks, technology that assists employees and interactions that should remain under direct human control. It asks how organisations can improve efficiency without reducing service to a sequence of transactions or weakening the relationships on which guest trust depends.

Panellists will consider employee workload, workplace surveillance, guest privacy, algorithmic bias and responsibility when systems produce errors. The discussion will examine whether automation expands staff capacity for meaningful service or imposes rigid workflows that restrict professional discretion. It will also address the design of escalation routes, the quality of training data and the need for employees and guests to understand when they are interacting with an automated system. Productivity claims will be assessed alongside staff wellbeing and service inclusion.

Participants will learn to evaluate technology investments through a balanced set of operational, human and ethical measures. These include service quality, employee autonomy, accessibility, privacy, reliability and the capacity to correct harmful outcomes. The session will provide questions for determining which decisions require human approval and how governance should be maintained after procurement. Delegates will be equipped to distinguish responsible augmentation from automation introduced primarily to reduce labour costs or project an image of innovation without demonstrable benefit. This framework supports innovation that respects the expertise, security and dignity of hospitality work throughout organisational change.

Speaker and chair

Prof. Iis Tussyadiah

Speaker

University of Surrey

United Kingdom

Iis Tussyadiah is Dean of Surrey Business School and Professor of Intelligent Systems in Service at the University of Surrey. Her research examines how artificial intelligence and digital technologies influence service experiences and travel behaviour. Her interests include human–machine interaction, digital nudging and privacy.

Scholardemia profile Professional profile Google Scholar ORCID

Prof. Eugenia Wickens

Chair and organiser

OTS Academy

United Kingdom

Here I am. I am me. Not you. Just me.

Scholardemia profile ORCID Google Scholar

Committee

Organising Committee

Operational leadership and event delivery team.

Prof. Eugenia Wickens

Chair

OTS Academy

United Kingdom

Here I am. I am me. Not you. Just me.

Scholardemia profile ORCID Google Scholar

Photos

People at the heart of hospitality technology. Illustrative photograph — Mads Terkelsen / Pexels.
Staff judgement within automated workflows — AI-generated editorial illustration.
A clear route to human help — AI-generated editorial illustration.
Discretion and guest privacy — AI-generated editorial illustration.
Accessible service with human judgement — AI-generated editorial illustration.