The hospitality industry is undergoing massive changes in the age of AI. With the majority of hotel companies either already deploying AI or planning to do so, there’s a healthy mixture of excitement and concern, particularly for many GMs.
The tools they’ve wanted to help them do their jobs more efficiently are already being employed, with even more specialized ones on the horizon. But as we continue to change the ways we consume, manage, and interact with the data these systems provide, many are wondering how it’s going to redefine their roles and responsibilities. These are the innovations we see coming next to the hospitality back office.
It’s important to note that the first wave of AI and automation has provided a preview of how these tools are shifting responsibilities for GMs and hotel teams.
Bank reconciliations can happen with a few clicks. Invoice processing, which used to be the bane of existence for some GMs, now barely has to be touched, allowing fully automated AP teams to process four times as many invoices vs manual set ups. Revenue management systems can make thousands of pricing adjustments that would have been nearly impossible to manage with spreadsheets alone. Just to name a few.
The teams that have already taken advantage of these kinds of automation no longer have to chase down answers across multiple systems and assemble them for ownership. They just have to review and verify it. Their roles didn’t disappear just because automations surfaced the data faster. If anything, it shifted their responsibilities away from gathering information to providing the judgment, accountability, and explanation that gives that information meaning. Because at the end of the day, someone still needs to make the call and own the outcome, and AI simply can’t do that.
If the first wave of back-office AI and automation taught us anything, it’s that there are some gaps to fill, and leaders have been pretty clear about what they want to further assist them in their roles. This next round of AI is focused on addressing those issues specifically.
This might just be the number one request I hear: “Why can’t I just ask the system a question?”
Having the ability to ask your ERP & accounting software questions like, “What were my ten largest expenses last month?” or “Which vendors should I review before renewal season?” and get the answers in seconds would be game-changing.
Some organizations have been experimenting with workarounds by exporting information from their accounting platform into tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or using Co-Pilot in Excel itself. But natural language AI capability will soon be available directly in hospitality ERPs like HIA. This allows teams to interact with their data more naturally without leaving the systems they already use.
Even with the latest AI and automation, there are still plenty of manual tasks to complete, and we’re finally approaching a place where AI agents can be leveraged to relieve some of this workload.
Similar to the popular AI agents out there, like Claude, these built-in ones can be given instructions to complete structured work such as vendor setup, balance sheet reconciliation support, and other routine monthly processes. This will give teams more time to focus on the decisions and conversations that have the greatest impact on performance.
This one has also been pretty high up on the list, as there has never been a way to attach these valuable reports to the system. Once the monthly or quarterly meeting was over, most of this information gets buried in meeting notes, email threads, or simply remains inside the GM’s head.
Now, some hospitality solutions, like HIA, are making it possible to capture that context in real time while decisions are still fresh. Not only does this help the explanation stay connected to the data, the decision, and the outcome, but it also becomes a form of institutional memory that remains long after the people who made the decisions.
We’ve already seen how powerful anomaly detection can be in areas like bank reconciliations and AP automation. What I’m seeing now is a growing desire to apply that same concept across the rest of the operation. For example, a built-in tool to detect anomalies can be applied to vendor payments to quickly identify top expenses or trends.
The more new tools are integrated into systems, the more questions inevitably follow about how to use them. This can quickly overwhelm any IT department.
New AI Support assistants will help fill that gap by providing answers and instructions directly within the system. Users can simply ask a question and receive step-by-step guidance based on the task they’re trying to complete. It’s a big shift away from user manuals and online help guides, that will have a significant impact on how fast teams can execute their work.
The most exciting part of these new back office tools coming down the pike aren’t any individual features. It’s what happens when these capabilities start working together.
A GM can start their day confident that the reports they need will be waiting for them. The anomalies that deserve attention can easily be surfaced for review. Their teams will finally be able to focus on the proactive strategies they’ve always wanted to implement but never had the time to.
A labor variance or budget adjustment won’t immediately trigger a phone call because the context behind decisions made last week has already been documented on the GM Critique. When ownership pulls up the numbers, the story behind them is there.
The goal of implementing these new technologies isn’t to diminish roles. It’s to redistribute time to areas that have a greater impact than paperwork, like improving guest satisfaction, protecting profitability, developing your people, and positioning the property for long-term success.
Charlie Fritsch is CEO and Founder of Hotel Investor Apps, Inc., makers of HIA, the ERP purpose-built for hospitality. With over 30 years of hotel brokerage and commercial real-estate and capital funding experience, Charlie created HIA with the express intent of simplifying and elevating hospitality financial management. Charlie is committed to always expanding HIA’s capabilities to further consolidate and streamline hospitality back-office functionality.
HIA, A Product Of © Hotel Investor Apps Inc.
