Prof. Dr. Dr. Egger
F.acT: What is artificial intelligence and how can it be used?
Roman Egger: Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly established itself in society in recent years and is used in a wide variety of areas. Two major categories of AI in particular have become established: predictive and generative AI.
Predictive AI is used to recognize patterns in data and make predictions based on them. It is used, for example, in the financial sector for risk analysis, in medicine for disease prognoses and in tourism for visitor flows. By using predictive algorithms, tourism companies can predict when and where visitor flows will increase so that offers can be adapted accordingly to provide the best possible service.
Generative AI, on the other hand, creates new content based on existing data. Well-known examples are ChatGPT for text-based communication or Midjourney for generating images. These systems have revolutionized access to AI in society at large, as they are intuitive to use and support creative processes. In the tourism industry, generative AI can be used for the automated creation of advertising texts, travel descriptions or even the design of virtual travel experiences.
Q.acT: What does multimodality mean in AI?
Roman Egger: Multimodality means that AI systems can process different types of data simultaneously and link them together. For example, a multimodal system can analyze images of places of interest, generate suitable texts and provide voice assistants with tourist information. This significantly expands the application areas of AI, as it can not only process individual data types, but also provide context-related information. In practice, this means that a tourist can take a picture of a location with their smartphone and immediately receive a detailed description and recommendations for nearby attractions. From the perspective of tourism employees, a multimodal AI system can support hotel staff in communicating with international guests by translating spoken language in real time, providing relevant tourist information and answering questions about local attractions or events. This can significantly improve service quality and customer satisfaction.
Q.acT: How can AI support us in our everyday lives?
Roman Egger: The integration of AI into everyday life is particularly evident in the areas of efficiency, effectiveness and creativity:
- Efficiency: automating routine tasks saves time and money. This is particularly noticeable in the tourism industry, where booking inquiries, customer service and logistics benefit greatly from increased efficiency.
- Effectiveness: AI helps to make better decisions by evaluating huge amounts of data and making well-founded recommendations. For example, hotels can use AI-supported analyses to optimize their pricing strategy and thus maximize their revenue.
- Creativity: AI can create innovative marketing campaigns, generate personalized content and provide creative impetus for the design of new tourism experiences.
- Scale & speed: AI processes large amounts of data in a matter of seconds, giving companies a decisive competitive advantage.
F.acT: What changes will AI bring to jobs?
Roman Egger: With the increasing spread of AI, it is inevitable that the world of work will also change significantly. Companies need to develop strategies to successfully shape this change. It is particularly important to keep an eye on the mental well-being of employees, as AI is revolutionizing many work processes and redefining existing roles. Ethical and data protection concerns must be addressed in order to secure the trust of employees and customers. At the same time, the question arises as to how AI can be optimally integrated into existing workflows. This includes how AI can improve talent acquisition, how AI can make the onboarding of new employees more efficient and how AI can optimize employee performance. The question of how ethical standards can be ensured when using AI is particularly crucial.
Q.acT: Will AI replace humans?
Roman Egger: It is important to understand that AI will not replace humans, but could in particular displace those employees who do not have AI skills. Studies already show that a significant proportion of employees would rather work with AI than with human colleagues, as they perceive AI bots as more competent. This highlights the need for workers to develop their AI skills in order to remain competitive in an AI-driven world of work.
F.acT: How will humans remain relevant in an AI-driven future?
Roman Egger: In order to remain competitive in a future characterized by AI, strategic adjustments are essential. This includes investing in cultural, social and emotional skills in particular, as these aspects cannot be replaced by AI. Continuous training of employees is also crucial in order to redefine their role in an AI-supported world. Companies and destinations must also strive for a balanced combination of AI technology and human added value. While AI ensures efficiency and effectiveness, humans bring emotional intelligence, creative thought processes and social interaction. Those who manage to combine these elements in a meaningful way will be successful in the long term.
F.acT: What opportunities does AI offer for the tourism industry?
Roman Egger: The tourism industry has enormous potential to use AI to optimize its processes, create personalized experiences and make data-based decisions. At the same time, this requires a conscious adaptation of the work culture and a strategic integration of AI in order to achieve a synergy between technological efficiency and human creativity. Companies that make targeted use of AI while emphasizing human strengths will position themselves as pioneers in the changing tourism industry.
