AI Can’t Fake This
AI today feels like the wild west days of the Internet in the mid-to-late 90s, fast-moving, full of fear and hype. If you look back and see how the Internet reshaped almost every part of our lives, you have to acknowledge that AI will do the same, likely tenfold, making the fear around its unchecked expansion understandable.
But sectors like health and education will see huge improvements. AI can strip away the mundane admin and free professionals to focus on people. Doctors, nurses, and teachers will spend more time with patients and students. Advances in medicine will be exponential. Education could be transformed entirely. If everyone starts with the “perfect” AI-generated answer, the job of learning becomes questioning it, breaking it apart, and finding a better one. Imagine a generation raised to analyse and improve, not just memorise and repeat.
Now, while everyone worries about robot takeovers and AI world domination, there’s another story playing out, and hospitality is right in the middle of it.
In a world where content is so compelling you can’t tell what’s real, people will crave what is, and only hospitality can deliver that.
Human interaction will become premium. Experience will be the new luxury. When everything online is polished and curated, people will seek out the messy, unpredictable, sensory-rich moments that hospitality can offer. Unpolished will feel more real than polished. In-person will feel more trustworthy than digital. Stories will matter more than services.
The future of hospitality isn’t just food or drink, it’s context. It’s how people feel in your space, and what they remember about it.
In a digital world, the physical becomes treasured. Disconnection becomes a feature, not a flaw, with no-phone zones and screenless service. We’ll see analogue-first nights with vinyl, VHS and hopefully raves (inspired by grandparents who lived it the first time round). These are not gimmicks, just relief from digital fatigue.
Gen Z and Gen A may drink less, but the future will bring new formats we have never seen before because the need for human connection isn’t going anywhere; in fact, it’s only growing.
As AI strips out admin and sharpens operations, staff will have more time to focus on customers and the experience. Hospitality won’t just survive the AI era; it’ll thrive. It’ll lead the charge in showing what tech can’t replace. You can’t automate vibes or deepfake genuine care..
