One of the many things about hospitality is its reputation as the business of people. We’re rooted in every aspect of the far-reaching industry. Humans are at the heart because it is humans who are served. And what better to aid a human than technology?
As hoteliers, event planners, bartenders, servers, concierges, entertainers, entrepreneurs and caterers, we find ourselves drawn to technology, and it’s not hard to imagine why. Technology makes our lives easier, bringing our dreams to life limitlessly.
Advancements in technology are evolving faster than initially thought possible, and honestly, faster than many of us can keep up with. And speaking of these advancements, there’s one topic that has recently been all the buzz… And you probably guessed it, artificial intelligence (AI).
But what is AI, how does it work, what are the benefits, what are the downsides, how is it growing and how is it shaping our industry?
For this year’s Dean’s Report, we’re diving into these very topics, so buckle up, because it may be complex, it may be scary, it may be exciting, but it’s undoubtedly here to stay.
So, what exactly is AI?
AI is the capability of computer systems to perform complex tasks that humans typically do. The systems intelligently learn, reason, problem-solve and predict when making decisions or completing tasks. It has several purposes, the most common being efficiency, effectiveness and automation.
As of July 2025, some of the ways someone can use AI are:
- Autonomous vehicles
- Coding
- Customer service chatbots
- Data mining compilation
- Direction applications
- Facial recognition
- Forecasting analytics & predictive analysis
- Fraud detection
- Generative image & audio creation
- Individualized e-commerce ads
- Language translation
- Medical diagnosis & patient monitoring
- Movie & television recommendations
- Personalized financial advice
- Predictive agriculture crop yields
- Predictive scheduling
- Robots & systems used in manufacturing
- Social media algorithms
- Text editing
- Text to podcast generators
- Travel itineraries
- Video advertisements
- Virtual assistants
- Web search engines
Ultimately, the uses of AI are as limitless as the user’s imagination.
One can classify AI based on four main functionalities: Reactive, Limited Memory, Theory of Mind and Self-Aware:
- Reactive machines are AI systems that have no memory and are task-specific, meaning that a given input always yields the same output. An example of this type of AI is Netflix’s recommendations, which are based on a user’s watch history data.
- Limited Memory AI is a system that can learn from and utilize past data to improve its performance. It uses an algorithm that imitates the way neurons in the human brain work together, meaning that it gets smarter with the more data it receives. It can also retain this information to make predictions. An example of this type of AI is self-driving cars.
- Theory of Mind (ToM) is the cognitive ability to infer another person’s mental state based on observable behavior, language and context — essentially understanding emotions, beliefs and social cues. This was a skill previously thought to be uniquely human, absent in even the most intelligent animals. Now, however, GPT-5.0-level AI is in the early stages of exhibiting this ability. It can have social interactions that enable empathy, predict behavior and infer intentions. What’s significant is that the ToM capability was never explicitly programmed; AI learned it as a side effect of being trained on massive amounts of text data.
- Self-Aware AI is currently hypothetical. If it were to exist, AI would possess a consciousness and could reflect on its mental state, then make autonomous decisions based on internal motivations or beliefs.
Right now, the most common uses of AI — which many of us know and love — are the Large Language Models (LLM) such as ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot and Claude. These fall under the Limited Memory and ToM functionalities and are a subset of Generative AI, a broad term used for AI modules that create new content. LLMs produce new outputs (answers) from inputs that the user has prompted or asked; thus, the more we use them, the smarter they become.
How does AI actually work?
AI is powered through a combination of large datasets, powerful computing and sophisticated algorithms. These systems operate through data centers — highly specialized facilities that house high-performance computer systems designed to support the enormous processing demands of AI. Because a significant amount of energy (which turns to heat) is used to power these systems, the data centers require state-of-the-art cooling technologies, like specialized liquid cooling or heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) setups to prevent system failure.
As of July 2025, an estimated 130 major AI-specialized data centers operate across more than 30 countries, with the U.S. and China hosting the vast majority, over 90% in fact. These facilities are energy-intensive, with just one data center consuming anywhere from 10 to 50 megawatts of electricity: that’s enough to power up to 50,000 homes. And newer AI campuses are being designed to exceed a shocking 100 megawatts.
According to OpenAI, as of July 2025, ChatGPT processed over 2.5 billion daily queries, with 122.6 million unique users per day. Not even one short year ago, in December 2024, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that ChatGPT was handling about 1 billion prompts per day. And keep in mind, this significant 150% 7-month increase is exclusive to just one platform.
As AI continues to evolve, the infrastructure supporting it must scale accordingly, raising critical questions about energy sustainability, environmental impact and global access.
That leads us to the effect of AI on the atmosphere…
According to STAX Engineering, “in just a few years, data centers, which run thousands of servers nonstop, have doubled the amount of energy they use, with communities near large data centers being regularly exposed to dirty water and air that may cause respiratory issues. Power generation is already the largest source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the world.”
These emissions come mainly from the electricity powering servers and IT devices; electricity that’s still primarily generated from fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil. Each releases significant amounts of CO2, contributing to global warming and climate change.
Many data centers also use water-based cooling systems. On average, a single Google data center consumes about 450,000 gallons of water per day. And since they run 24/7, many rely on diesel generators for backup power, emitting pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter and CO2.
Did you know that training a large AI model — such as those used in primary natural language processing research — can emit around 626,000 pounds of CO2? That’s nearly five times the lifetime emissions of an average American car. In 2022, approximately 2,700 data centers in the U.S. consumed over 4% of the nation’s electricity — a figure projected to rise to 6% by 2026, according to the International Energy Agency.
Thankfully, to reduce this environmental impact, several data centers are exploring alternative energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydropower, compressed air, biofuels and microgrids.
One of the start-ups leading this charge is Exowatt, founded in 2023 to meet the energy demands of AI infrastructure with clean, dispatchable power. Instead of using traditional solar panels, Exowatt captures solar energy as high-temperature heat, stores it and converts it to electricity on demand.
Dr. Kevin Norman, a power systems engineering lead at Exowatt, utilized ChatGPT very early on, long before it gained widespread recognition. While working for several companies during his education, he realized he wanted to address the energy strain caused by the demand for AI.
“It’s proven that we don’t have enough energy generation to power the demand for AI, so I chose a career focused on energy because I wanted to make AI more efficient, but with good intentions,” said Norman. “Now, I’m helping the world and preventing climate change by providing energy in a very responsible manner.”
Exowatt’s vision? Energy at one cent per kilowatt hour, made possible by avoiding rare-earth materials like lithium. Their process doesn’t rely on chemical reactions; instead, it utilizes concentrated solar heat to convert electricity.
“So instead of burning petroleum or natural gas, we’re just concentrating solar into heat and turning that heat into electricity,” said Norman. “It’s incredibly efficient and eco-friendly.”
By fueling technology in a sustainable manner, it can enhance climate initiatives by optimizing energy use, advancing carbon capture and improving environmental monitoring. And this is good, because it’s clear that intelligent innovation isn’t fading anytime soon. But to understand where AI is headed, it helps to remember where it started.
Technology evolution over time
Historically, technological inventions have shaped the world around them. If one were to Marty McFly it back to 500 years ago, the landscape would differ exponentially. Just like the Industrial Revolution, the Digital Revolution has brought about significant societal and economic changes, some of which are highly beneficial, while others are somewhat intimidating.
“The first real technological invention was the printing press in 1440, and then it took hundreds of years for the next big development,” said Stephen Barth, J.D., a Hilton College professor and an attorney.
“Those hundreds of years between innovations were reduced to 150, then 50, then 25. After we ventured into space and began exploring computers, major innovations started surfacing every few years. Now, you wake up in the morning and the whole world has shifted on you, because things are changing so fast,” said Barth.
Companies are rapidly evolving through digital data and technology, just as people are. For example, consider the simple tasks of note-taking or driving a car; today, we type what used to be handwritten, and we navigate while driving using smartphone maps rather than physical ones. With any rapid growth and widespread adoption of something new, once it’s been used for some time, it becomes hard to imagine a life without it.
How do these advancements impact hospitality?
From a customer standpoint, you’ve likely already used AI within the hospitality industry. You may have checked into a hotel using a digital key, found the cheapest flight for an upcoming trip using Google Flights, played a game in a casino that had its design optimized, made a restaurant reservation by speaking to a virtual assistant, bought a ticket to an event after seeing a marketing advertisement, etc. As consumers, we often don’t even realize how deeply integrated AI is into the everyday operations of the businesses we’re engaging with.
In fact, every facet of the hospitality industry is likely already adapting AI in varying ways.
“About 10 years ago, I heard somebody from Hilton say, ‘we’re no longer a hotel company, we are a technology company that sells hotel rooms.’ This shift has been going on for a very long time,” said Barth.
Many hotels are currently utilizing robots, but their capabilities differ significantly from those of AI. Take Servi for example, many properties are employing robots to assist with tasks such as delivering food, vacuuming, providing room service and automating check-in.
“The hospitality industry is typically slower in terms of technology and data, but now we are on the right track by implementing AI and new kinds of technological innovations to the workplace,” said Dr. Minwoo Lee, MBA, CHIA, CHE, Hilton College associate professor and the director of the Hospitality Analytics and Innovation Lab.
There is much potential to increase workflow and operational efficiency:
- Consider a restaurant’s sanitization practice: AI could detect if a walk-in falls to a critical temperature or the bathroom is out of paper towels.
- Consider events: AI could provide a touring experience, where guests’ personalized needs are presented in an augmented reality space that mirrors their unique event, accommodating for weather, square footage, quantity of guests and vendors.
- Consider hotels: AI could provide recommendations on how to maximize revenue, such as pricing during a Fourth of July weekend, or equip a concierge with the capability of communicating with someone from a foreign country using a real-time translation device.
“Specifically related to the casino industry, you could put an AI and facial recognition system into security cameras, headsets or goggles,” said Lee. “So, if a customer is playing a game and starts to show signs of a gambling addiction or abnormal behavior, the system can read their emotions, protecting staff.”
Likewise, in all sectors of the industry, cameras equipped with AI could prevent catastrophes if they’re able to record, monitor and alert to suspicious behaviors.
These are some of the many upsides of AI; however, there is potential for many downsides as well, the biggest concern being the impact on the workforce climate.
Is our current work climate changing? Is it at risk?
AI is already reshaping the workforce — for better in some areas, but we're still discovering its full impact.
“I have a friend who works in accounting,” said Tucker Johnson, instructional associate professor at Hilton College. “A few years ago, she told me, ‘I’m writing the program that’s going to eliminate eight people that work for me.’ That program will soon be able to read invoices, automatically code and pay them and generate financial documents.”
This kind of automation shows how much we’ve come to trust technology — and in many cases, rightfully so. But when it comes to AI, that trust must come with caution. Even minor errors can have serious consequences and oversight remains essential.
“For technology to be properly integrated into jobs, the tasks need to be well understood, and we’re just not there yet,” said Dr. Cristian Morosan, CHE, CHTP, Hilton College assistant dean of student affairs, the Donald H. Hubbs Professor and the director of undergraduate digital education.
Humans bring a set of strengths that AI cannot replicate, and even if it could, we might not want it to. Many automated tools make companies more efficient, but often frustrate users and, without supervision, can go awry.
This scenario happened with Cursor, an AI-powered coding assistant developed by Anysphere. On April 16, its customer support bot went rogue, impersonating a real agent and giving a user false information about company policy. That false information was then posted to Reddit and a news site, triggering concern, cancellations and public scrutiny. The email sent by the bot was inaccurate, unsupervised and entirely fabricated.
There’s no doubt this level of independence from AI is chilling. But when AI and humans are paired together, there’s real promise of limitless efficiency and intelligence. A cobot model could solve a lot of problems.
“AI isn’t going to take our students’ jobs,” said Barth. “People who know how to use AI are the ones who will be taking their jobs. This is why I believe we need to teach AI every chance that we can.”
While AI will undoubtedly and inevitably be adopted across industries, it’s unlikely to eliminate jobs entirely — at least not in hospitality. History offers perspective: During the dot-com boom of the 1990s, some roles disappeared, but countless others were created or reimagined. According to Goldman Sachs, 60% of today’s workforce holds jobs that didn’t exist in 1940 — with technology-driven job creation accounting for over 85% of employment growth in the last 80 years.
Some even believe AI could one day be the catalyst for broader societal shifts like universal basic income (UBI). First proposed during the Industrial Revolution, UBI is a system of regular payments to citizens regardless of income to help offset unemployment.
According to Forbes, “more output is created for less effort, leading to a surplus of value [which could] then be reinvested in social programs like UBI,” states Forbes. Still, that reality remains far off.
Overall, AI replacing jobs does not seem likely for hospitality. This is because the appeal of the hospitality industry has always been rooted in personalized service; humans are at the heart of our business. And we’re proud of this! Our business of people will always be a safe career pursuit because humans possess a level of empathy and emotional intelligence that technology will never fully replicate. People thrive here because human connection is the core motivator.
How is AI touching academia?
AI in academia has simultaneously been on the rise, making tasks exponentially easier and usage more accepted.
“However, something to be careful about is not losing critical thinking skills while using AI,” said Norman. “Future generations may be affected if they rely too heavily on it. We must train ourselves to be mentally strong.”
For Johnson, embracing AI in the classroom means eliminating busy work. He finds innovative ways to encourage students to learn the necessary content while assigning very small grading weights to work that can be completed at home, where the assistance of AI is unmonitored.
“I believe that something crucial to learning is for students to produce the work in person, so I can physically see how they’re using their brain as the only tool,” said Johnson.
A considerable benefit of AI though, is its tools that help students learn and process information. The platform Notebook LM is a tool that Barth often uses, as it can create podcasts from text, which is quite helpful in the legal world. Dry textbook chapters can be turned into comprehensive discussions that students can listen to while driving, working out or cooking. This is a huge benefit for someone whose learning style is dialogic, or conversation-based.
AI can also be used to make grading or spell-checking more efficient. However, when using it in this capacity, there’s a risk to privacy that must be considered.
What are the dangers of AI?
“To what extent are people willing to disclose their personal information to AI, while not knowing where it’s going, not knowing how it’s processed and not knowing where it ends up,” said Morosan.
“AI is scary from the viewpoint of privacy. Let’s say I have a medical condition, or I disclose financial or identity information. Then, that information is released to the public. This could be a vulnerability for me,” said Morosan. “For example, if I ask an AI to provide a travel itinerary for me, what if that information is hacked? That hacker would then know I’m not home between certain dates and my house is vacant and vulnerable… The information we choose to disclose is important.”
Likewise, the overreliance on AI is already a prevalent issue. On July 16, OpenAI’s ChatGPT experienced a significant global outage. Thousands of people reported problems and were seemingly paralyzed without the platform to rely on.
This reaction is a huge issue because, according to OpenAI, 66% of students worldwide report using ChatGPT for coursework and school-related tasks, spanning the age range of 13-24. With a reliance on the platform to perform tasks such as problem-solving, critical thinking and deductive reasoning, these users, whose frontal lobes aren’t even fully developed, risk hindering the development of critical foundational skills.
On a fictional note, several media sources also demonstrate the effects of humans’ overreliance on artificial intelligence. Box office hits, such as "Terminator," "M3GAN," "The Matrix," "WALL-E," "Her," "Avengers: Age of Ultron" and "The Electric State" have predicted the adverse effects of giving technology too much power, often resulting in a dystopian future where machines hold control over humans. Movies like this seemed far-fetched or dramatic 10 years ago, but are they?
Furthermore, bias toward certain outcomes is a danger. For example, according to a consumer behavior data report by Verto Analytics, "Apple users are generally willing to pay more than Android users.” AI bots capable of checking the user’s device could upcharge for a service or product, just based on their browsing platform.
Similarly, when efficiency is added to certain fields, there’s a grey area in the ethical guidelines. Take a law firm, for example. AI can reduce a two-hour task to five-minutes, which seems like a win-win for everyone. However, when billing by the hour, who benefits who is held responsible? Does the lawyer bill for the two-hour charge or the five-minute one? Could the client omit having legal representation if they could use AI themselves? These are questions we don’t yet have answers to and why it’s ethically dangerous to implement AI into the workforce without regulations and guidelines.
These points are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more risks, just as there are several more benefits. One example of a widely popular benefit is the innovation and use of autonomous (self-driving) vehicles.
Embracing Autonomous Automotive Advancements
According to Statista, there are around 33,600 fully autonomous-capable vehicles estimated to be in operation globally in 2025. That’s up from the approximately 26,560 in 2024 and 21,150 in 2023.
“When I first met AI, I was developing path planning algorithms for automated rescue operations in flooded urban environments,” said Dr. Mehmet Ozkan, research engineer at the Ohio State University Center for Automotive Research.
“During Hurricane Harvey, many areas flooded, and I was able to capture aerial images from drones that showed the storm’s impact on the environment. I would then analyze these images to develop a plan for automating rescue operations,” said Ozkan.
In this instance, human operators could not be sent to the location because it was so dangerous. Images and applied processing techniques came in handy to help the operators develop a map, showing where victims needed to be rescued and where supplies needed to be delivered.
AI can accomplish amazing things such as these, in addition to everyday tasks, like forecasting traffic behavior, learning road conditions, avoiding collisions, testing for vehicle issues, etc.
Through the Center for Automotive Research, Ozkan and his team are working on the NEXTCAR Project, funded by ARPA-E, an agency under the U.S. Department of Energy.
“In this project, our goal was to achieve 30% energy efficiency, compared to the baseline, which in this scenario is a human driver,” said Ozkan. “Today, NEXTCAR technology developed by our team at The Ohio State University and our partners can reduce fuel consumption by up to 47% in road testing. This demonstrates how AI applications in the automotive industry can be both highly beneficial and transformative.”
What does the future look like?
Well, the future is actually here, and whether it excites you or makes you nervous depends entirely on how you feel about merging minds with machines.
The start-up company, Neuralink, is a brain-computer interface that translates neural signals into actions. They are currently in trials with seven individuals in the U.S. (four with spinal cord injuries and three with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS). They are approved to launch trials in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.
So far, these participants have been able to do incredible things: interact with a computer at the speed of thought, control computers and robotic arms simply by thinking about doing so and even play Mario Kart and Call of Duty video games by controlling two joysticks simultaneously with their minds. Their medical (and social) hindrances have been restored.
This is possible because electrodes are placed near neurons that detect action potentials in the brain. These neurons carry information about everything seen, thought, touched or felt. The chips and electronics process neural signals, transmitting them wirelessly to the Neuralink application, which decodes the data stream into actions and intents.
“Your ability to communicate is limited by how fast you can talk and type; what we’re talking about is unlocking that potential to enable you to communicate thousands, perhaps millions, of times faster than is currently possible,” said Elon Musk, the founder and majority owner of Neuralink, in the company’s latest update posted to X via video presentation, on June 27, 2025.
“This is an incredibly profound breakthrough and would be a fundamental change to what it means to be a human,” said Musk. He has laid out multiple ambitious stages for Neuralink:
- Telepathy — the experimental stage already underway — focuses on “reducing human suffering.” It’s currently limited to those with unmet medical needs, but the goal is to make it widely available in the future.
- Blindsight will “enhance human capabilities.” For this, a chip will be implanted deeper into the brain using Nerualink's surgical robots, aiming to restore vision in individuals who are visually impaired.
- Human-AI Symbiosis, broken into the goals of “understanding and expanding consciousness,” will leverage knowledge gained through phases one and two to “mitigate the risk of artificial intelligence.”
The company believes that it is imperative for society to address the input/output bandwidth constraint “so that the collective will of humanity can match the will of artificial intelligence.”
“Our goal is to build a whole-brain interface where we’re able to write information to neurons anywhere… This goal goes beyond the limits of our biology,” said DJ Seo, co-founder and president of Neuralink, in the company’s update.
By interacting with a computer at the speed of thought, the system could begin to understand desires and interface them with AI. This could allow information to be retrieved, thoughts to be stored and accessed from anywhere, anytime — privately and silently. This AI could decode neural signals, learn individual patterns, improve memory and learning, treat neurological disorders, restore sensory and motor functions and use high-bandwidth brain interfaces to achieve human-AI symbiosis — effectively augmenting human abilities.
When it comes to hospitality, imagine the future could look like…
“A self-driving car could pick you up from the airport, checking you into your hotel along the way. If you created a profile in advance with the hotel company [and synced your itinerary], then AI could [predict a personalized travel experience] and get you checked in,” said Morosan.
Now, when you arrive, you don’t have to talk to anyone, and all your needs are already heard and met. Maybe the car could even do so much as listen to your dinner request, sift through restaurants that fulfill your criteria and make you a reservation.
Likewise, a visual AI system could monitor a guest’s body temperature to analyze comfort levels and automatically adjust the room’s temperature for optimal wellbeing, then an AI-powered assistant embedded in hotel rooms could automate their requests by replacing towels, refilling minibar items or scheduling housekeeping; anticipating guests’ needs before they’re even expressed.
With these types of evolutions being highly realistic and able to be adopted relatively soon, a big thing to consider is emotional intelligence (EI). When machine intelligence first came onto the scene, considerable criticism was its lack of empathy.
“Having bots with empathy is right around the corner — I mean, look at the exponential progression of technology already,” said Barth. “We already see this with online bot-driven call centers or AI-generated therapists. They can sense when you get frustrated or when they haven’t reached a solution that you’re happy with. Well, that’s emotional intelligence right there.”
“I am just tickled pink to be alive with this going on; the exponential progression of technology is just fascinating,” said Barth.
If our students graduate with a great foundation of AI and EI, they can jump to the top of the industry leadership ladder very quickly.
“As a student, I feel excited and grateful to be learning during such a transformative time in technology,” said Nicole Zaga Granados, a UH Cullen College of Engineering master’s student.
“Our curriculum is evolving to reflect these changes, integrating AI tools alongside the core foundations of our field, not as a replacement, but as a complement," said Zaga. "These tools are helping us become more well-rounded and better prepared for what lies ahead.”
AI is reshaping how we live, work and interact. While it presents challenges that require careful navigation, it also offers powerful opportunities for progress, which are critical to embrace.
The future of AI will depend not just on how advanced the technology becomes, but on how thoughtfully we choose to use it. And if we do it right, humans won’t be replaced — we’ll be elevated.
Because at the end of the day, the real intelligence behind any innovation is the people driving it forward.