Over the next 5-10 years, if not sooner, leaders and workers across all industries will begin to see the introduction and proliferation of automated, non-human co-workers.
Some will take the form of AI Agents, integrated into applications already commonly used in our operations and layered on top of our workflows. Others will be physical robotics, specifically designed to perform tasks previously performed by humans.
Two years ago, the presenter delivered a seminar on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impacts on healthcare hospitality at the Institute of Hospitality in Healthcare (IHHC) conference in Perth. This seminar gave the audience a primer on the history and origins of the technology and its evolution into what we now most commonly think of when we talk about AI, the Large Language Model (LLM).
This seminar will expand on the topic, present several use cases for AI, and discuss how it is already changing how we work and process information, whether we are aware of it or not.
- Agentic AI - How this technology expands on LLMs and unlocks autonomous functionality, a key development in this space.
- AI scribes - Last year the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) introduced AI scribes into its clinical teams, marking a vote of confidence in the technology. These scribes are able to accurately transcribe conversations, recognise and differentiate between different voices in the room and compile clinical notes.
- AI summary tools - RCH’s HR system has also recently introduced AI summaries to its reference checking dashboard, an interesting example and use case of tools designed to save hiring managers time reading lengthy written references.
- AI research tools - These can best be described as “Google 2.0” and are already reshaping the internet as we know it.
- Robotics - This year, the RCH Food Services team trialled an autonomous cleaning robot, and the presenter will discuss how this technology is evolving.
This seminar will also cover some of the challenges and threats posed by these technologies.
- Data security and integrity - How familiar are you with where the data collected by your browser goes? Or how it’s used? This will be a primer on what data security looks like in an AI world.
- Public opinion and trust in AI technologies - While this is gradually softening, there is still room for significant scepticism, and arguably for good reason.
- Ethics - The recent conflict between OpenAI, Anthropic and the US Pentagon over guardrails on surveillance and automated decision-making is a great example of this shifting landscape.
- Sustainability - What is the true cost of AI?
- Return on investment - Currently, much of the cost of using these emerging technologies is heavily subsidised by venture capital. What will ROI look like when these vendors need to monetise the technology?
As leaders in the healthcare hospitality sector, the presenter strongly believes that we must familiarise ourselves with the possibilities and limitations of these technologies so we are best prepared for the rapid evolution already underway.