“80 percent human, 20 percent technology.”

Markus Kirchmair started programming and building websites at the age of 13. At 18, he obtained his business license and spent over a decade helping tourism businesses in Tyrol with social media and website development. What followed was a meteoric career spanning self-employment, the corporate world, and continuing education - always driven by the same passion: his enthusiasm for new technologies. Today, he advises companies on the strategic use of AI, gives lectures, and has recently established himself as an author - with a result that has surprised even him.

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Markus, you have a background in marketing and digital consulting, and you’ve always had strong connections in the tourism industry. What do you bring to the table when you visit a hotel as a consultant today?

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I keep the big picture in mind. I don’t just focus on the business side - that is, whether something makes sense at all before implementing it - but I also bring a strong understanding of communication and legal matters to the table. Many projects fail not because of the technology, but because people in silos come up with great solutions that offer little economic benefit, don’t resonate with the target audience, or are difficult to implement due to data protection concerns. I try to identify these issues early on and then recommend the solution that truly fits the specific business.

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What does a hotelier expect when they speak to you for the first time today?

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Most of the time, someone comes in with an idea of what they want. Sometimes it’s specific - a voice agent, a chatbot. Sometimes they think they know what they want, and then during the conversation you realize you actually need to start somewhere else. My job is often to provide guidance first. Because there are two mistakes I see regularly: one everyone knows - being too late, the classic fear of missing out. The other is rarely mentioned: being too early.

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What do you mean?

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Many companies are currently trying to reinvent the wheel on their own. They commission custom solutions, only to find that three months later, a standard provider offers exactly the same functionality - more reliably and at a lower cost - meaning that, in many cases, their investment was a waste of money. The market landscape is also changing rapidly. Time and again, we see leading AI providers rendering entire business models obsolete - models that emerged from their own ecosystems just a few months ago - by integrating those features directly into their own products. I’m thinking, for example, of services that can generate professional portrait photos from individual cell phone photos. A year or two ago, that was a niche. Today, the same results can be easily achieved with standard tools. In online marketing, vibe coding, and other areas, too, a lot is becoming obsolete again.

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You distinguish between several stages of AI development. How would you explain that to a hotelier?

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Most people are familiar with stage one: chatbots. You type something in, and you get a response. Stage two was reasoning - the AI thinks for itself and draws meaningful conclusions on its own. This has advanced significantly over the past year, but many haven’t really noticed it because the free versions don’t show what’s happening at the more advanced level. There are AI systems today that win math competitions and solve problems they were never trained to handle.

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And stage three?

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Agents. This is the development that’s currently causing the biggest upheaval. An agent doesn’t just respond - they take action themselves, sometimes even proactively, without being asked. Here’s a concrete example: The AI continuously monitors the inbox, identifies a booking request, checks availability, and drafts a reply. This is no longer a chatbot waiting for questions. It’s someone who works alongside you.

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“In the end, most AI projects are 80 percent people and change - and 20 percent technology.”

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What does this mean for a hotel facing a shortage of skilled workers?

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If, in theory, I need four people at the front desk but can only find two, a well-designed agent system can at least partially fill that gap or lighten the workload of the two available staff members enough to make it work. That’s already possible today. But it raises a structural issue that cannot be ignored: once it’s implemented, you can’t just turn it off again as soon as qualified staff become available. It’s a decision with long-term consequences.

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How should you deal with employees who feel uncomfortable with this?

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There’s no getting around the need to talk openly about this. A Harvard survey of young people shows that young Democrats and Republicans - who are otherwise divided on almost everything - agree on one point: both see AI as a major threat to their professional future. This shows just how deep-seated the anxiety is. And the more we downplay it, the greater the mistrust becomes. Who do employees trust more - someone who, through rose-colored glasses, says it’s all harmless? Or someone who addresses the issue openly and asks: How can we put the resources that are freed up to good use? People are relieved when you’re honest. Because they sense it anyway.

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For the hotel industry, this sounds less dramatic than for other sectors.

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That’s true. In an insurance company, for example, where AI can speed up the processing of claims by a factor of ten, the question arises as to how the freed-up resources can be utilized. After all, the number of claims to be processed won’t increase nearly as fast. In the hospitality industry, it’s different. Especially in the upscale segment, people want to interact with hospitable staff. There, the freed-up resources can directly enhance the guest experience. The potential threat here is more of an indirect one in the medium term: How will purchasing power develop in the target markets if overall employment levels tend to decline? That is the issue that will occupy the tourism industry over the next ten years - not the front desk itself.

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Many hoteliers report tool fatigue. AI is everywhere, and every product requires a new subscription.

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This is the reality. It’s easy to end up with 40 or 50 subscriptions - from presentation tools to email assistants. Then there are the disappointments. Microsoft Copilot is a good example: high expectations, but in practice, a sobering experience for many. You read headlines like “95 percent of companies are investing more in AI projects than they’re getting out of them” - but people forget that most of them only started taking it seriously a year or 18 months ago. In many cases, the leap in performance and efficiency won’t become apparent until the near future - but when it does, it will be very significant.

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Financial planning and controlling rarely come up in discussions about AI in the hotel industry. Why?

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Because they often don’t make for exciting press photos. A robot at the front desk - even if it’s just a virtual agent - makes for an interesting story for a broad audience. Forecasting in the background does not. Yet that’s often exactly where enormous potential lies dormant - because many hoteliers are flying blind when it comes to costs. When a system like profitize consolidates financial data from PMS, POS, HR, and accounting and processes it in real time, gut feelings suddenly turn into data-driven decision-making. But the lack of media glamour is no sign of a lack of relevance.

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What specific advice would you give to a hotelier who wants to get started today?

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Analysis. Seriously. Spend half a day sitting down together and asking honestly: Where do we stand? Is AI already being used - officially or behind the scenes, without anyone knowing? Is there an internal policy on this? Where is the biggest pain point, and where can I make quick improvements with minimal effort? Sometimes a few hours are all it takes to add structured data to the website and thereby improve visibility in AI searches. Sometimes it’s the overwhelmed receptionist who would really benefit from a voice agent. But you can only figure that out if you take a closer look first. If you just dive in without a strategy, you’ll quickly find yourself going in circles. In the end, most AI projects are 80 percent people and change - and 20 percent technology.

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About the person

Markus Kirchmair is an entrepreneur, AI consultant, and author. Raised in Tyrol, he began programming at age 13 and spent over a decade helping tourism businesses in the region with digital transformation and social media. Today, he specializes in the strategic use of AI - with a focus on economic viability, change management, and legal frameworks. His book “AI for Beginners” has been ranked No. 1 in its Amazon category for over seven months.

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More info: www.markuskirchmair.com

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