You’ve probably received more than a few vendor pitches lately about how artificial intelligence (AI) will revolutionise your property. The promises sound incredible, AI handling guest inquiries 24/7, predicting what guests want before they ask, eliminating staff headaches. And while some of these capabilities exist, the gap between what vendors say AI does and what it actually does at your property is worth understanding before you commit budget.
Here’s the thing: you’re not sceptical because you’re behind the times. You’re sceptical because you know your guests, your staff, and your operations better than anyone else. You can feel when something is a real improvement versus something that just sounds good in a PowerPoint deck.
What AI Actually Does Well (Without Overselling It)
Your front desk gets hammered during peak check-in times. Guests ask the same questions repeatedly, Wi-Fi passwords, restaurant hours, where to find the gym. With Mitel’s partnership with Talkative, an AI Knowledge Base (KB) integrated with your Property Management System (PMS) handles this seamlessly. Real value here: your staff stops repeating themselves, and guests get instant answers at midnight when the desk is understaffed. Cruise Lines saw this firsthand when they deployed video chat capabilities, 41% of video interactions led to quote requests, with 13% converting to direct bookings.
Guests connecting with your business across multiple communications channels is another legitimate win. Instead of fielding calls, emails, and chat separately, Mitel’s partnership with Talkative’s AI consolidates everything. Agents see a unified view, respond faster, and customers feel heard.
Analysing guest feedback patterns also works. Instead of manually reading through hundreds of comments, the Supervisor AI flags that 40% of guests mention “slow check-in” or “noisy air conditioning.” You see patterns you might otherwise miss. Your team then decides whether those complaints justify operational changes. AI doesn’t make the decision; it saves you time finding the patterns.
Where the Hype Crashes Into Reality
AI systems require clean, consistent data to work. If your PMS data is messy, incomplete, or entered inconsistently across properties, you’ve got what everyone in tech calls “garbage in, garbage out.” You’re spending money training an AI Knowledge Base on bad data, and it performs poorly. You need to audit your brand knowledge first; there’s no shortcut there.
Personalisation sounds amazing on paper such as guests recognised instantly and preferences anticipated automatically. But here’s the reality: it only works if your team actually uses it. If housekeeping doesn’t log that a guest requested extra pillows, the system doesn’t remember it next time. Many hotels see disappointing results not because the technology fails, but because staff adoption is inconsistent. Your team needs to believe in it and use it daily for it to work.
Natural Language Processing (NLP), the AI’s ability to understand guest requests, works exceptionally well across 140+ languages, but it still struggles with regional accents, colloquialisms, and the messy way real people actually speak. A guest saying “the heating’s buggered” instead of “climate control malfunction” can confuse the system. Your staff handles this instantly. That’s why the Agent AI Copilot exists, to assist agents, not replace them.
Realistic Implementation Timelines
If you’re thinking “we’ll implement AI next month,” adjust that expectation. A proper implementation can take 4–6 months minimum, assuming you have a decent tech foundation already. That timeline includes Knowledge Base audit, system integration with your existing platforms, staff training, and the critical pilot phase where you test it at one or two properties before rolling out chain wide.
If your current systems don’t talk to each other well, add 3–4 months to that timeline for foundational fixes. This isn’t AI’s fault; it’s just the reality of hospitality tech stacks that grew organically over years.
Measuring Success Honestly
You need actual metrics, not vendor dashboard metrics. With AI you can track:
- Resolution rate (what percentage of issues the AI handles independently)
- Response time to guest inquiries (before and after)
- Agent efficiency (how much faster agents respond with AI assistance)
- Adoption rates among your team (percentage actually using it)
- CSAT scores on specific issues the AI addresses
- Cost per interaction handled by AI versus handled by staff
Honest measurement exposes whether this is working or just looking good on paper.
Collaboration between AI and humans
Your concierge won’t be replaced by AI. A guest wanting restaurant recommendations that match their dietary restrictions, cultural preferences, and conversation style, that’s human judgment. AI can suggest popular high-rating restaurants; your staff creates memorable experiences.
Crisis situations require humans. A guest upset about a booking error, a complaint about another guest’s noise, a request that involves empathy and judgment, these need someone who can actually care and respond with flexibility. AI flags these for your agents via the Supervisor AI, but shouldn’t be the frontline for them.
If your team feels replaced by technology, morale drops and experienced staff leaves. The best implementations, use AI to make your staff’s job easier and more satisfying. Agent AI Copilot reduces training time for new hires and makes complex requests feel manageable.
The Real Question
Before you evaluate any AI solution, ask yourself: what specific problem are we actually trying to solve? If the answer is “everything” or “we just need to be more modern,” you’re not ready yet. If the answer is “our reservations team can’t keep up during peak season” or “we’re losing bookings because guests can’t reach anyone after hours,” then you’ve got a concrete problem where Mitel’s solutions might genuinely help.
That clarity matters more than the AI itself. You know your property’s real bottlenecks. Start there. The technology that solves your actual problems will deliver results. The technology that sounds impressive but solves nothing will just be another platform gathering dust in your tech stack.
Reach out to our team today to find out more about how AI is transforming hospitality.
