More Tech or More Talk? the Future of Hospitality Management Education

This article was originally written by htr hotelrevue.
In her 1933 story, ‘Why Didn’t They Ask Evans’, Agatha Christie suggested that all of the answers to the murder could be answered by one person, Evans.

The protagonists thus spend their time seeking this answer and believing that until they talk to Evans, they will not have the answer. Therefore, to answer the question of the future of hospitality management education, who should we ask? In the past, we would have asked academic researchers who, in turn, would have examined and reexamined various angles and lenses to define the skills and competencies necessary for successful infiltration into the workplace. Today, in the 21st century, perhaps it is not Evans they need to ask, but Bard, Claude, or Jemini (or any of those AI generators).

If we were to ask about the future of hospitality education, we would be given some key trends and developments that are based on what is out there in the digital ecosystem, the big debates, and the meaningful discussions. However, if we wanted to create an innovative, people-centric, it-is-going-to-mean-something educational program, we would need to put ourselves in educational ecosystems, animate the big debates, and provoke meaningful discussions.

With over 25 years of teaching experience, I have seen the attempts to revolutionize education. For some, it came with computers, a computer for all. Let’s learn coding and programming through a series of zeros and ones. Then, the Internet came and was going to transform teaching and learning by offering immediate and ‘accurate’ (??) information at the touch of a finger. Wikipedia promised a quick way to find accurate information in surreal times. Now, AI generators tout a new era of prompts and instantaneous outputs… Is it Star Wars or War of the Worlds? I-Robot or The Jetsons? Yes, AI generators have taken center stage. The AI generator can do it all! All of the answers are upon request. Ask, and you shall receive. But what you will receive is still dependent on the question you asked. Catapult back in time to Socratic questioning… it was not the answer but the question that mattered. It is not a one-shot question and answer; instead, it is the process of debating, discussing, proving, disproving, and agreeing to disagree. And that must be done by the human who is writing the prompt.

So, what does hospitality management education have in store for the next generation? More tech? More talk? Courses entitled ‘Prompt Engineering’ followed by ‘Leading a Diverse Team,’ or perhaps ‘Prompt Engineering for Leading Diverse Teams’?

In short, hospitality management education has nothing to fear; tech will not replace educators, only how they teach. Tech can be the ultimate assistant, enabler, coach, or helper, but it cannot work alone. An AI generator sits silently until it is activated by a person. It will not prompt itself; it has no pressing questions. Thus, moving forward, tech and talk will continue to co-exist. There is space for both; there is a need for both, and they complement each other.

So why didn’t they ask Evans? Read the book!

DR Laura Zizka

Dr Laura Zizka – Associate Professor at EHL Hospitality Business School

This article originally appeared on EHL Insights.