What Can Technology Make Better and What Can It Not Replace?
Is better to talk to a person or do you prefer Alexa?
Some of Marriott’s hotel brands are getting amazon’s Alexa in the guest rooms. Some people have privacy concerns. While other people have adopted Alexa and made her part of their family. So talking to her on vacation might be like feeling at home?
Examples of Alexa’s hospitality uses include ordering room service or asking the device what the swimming pool hours are, today. However, some hotel brands require the human touch. They want you to talk to the Guest Service Representatives (GSRs) and other hotel staff. Some of those hotels don’t even have automated phone answering directories. They want people to answer the phone, after a specific number of rings, and talk to you.
What do you think? Is an Alexa or a Siri a better friend of yours than your hotel’s staff?
As a creative professional, you can paint great things in Adobe Photoshop, but can you do it without knowing what happened, centuries ago, in oil paint and watercolor?
When you create vector art, in Adobe Illustrator, do you remember how a T-Square worked on a drawing board?
How about making amazing special effects happen in Adobe Premier Pro? Do you know about splicing film clips together?
When does technology make our world richer and when does it become an excuse for a business to hire less staff?
In some hotels, the GSR is expected to not just check us in, but to come out from behind the front desk, show us around, and make sure our day is going a little bit better than when we walked through the front door. After an insane day of travel, maybe we need a warm handshake, a sincere “thank you,” a complementary bottle of wine, some freshly brewed coffee and conversation, or even a heartfelt hug.
Can Alexa do that, too?
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