FW-HTF-P: Building a Skilled Technological Workforce in the Hospitality Service Industry of the Future

这项人类技术前沿规划基金的未来工作重点是为酒店员工创造新的方式，以塑造自动化将如何影响他们的行业和工作。人们普遍预测，酒店业将在未来几十年经历重大的工作转变。自动化在导致这些转变方面发挥着关键作用，例如自助服务亭、各种机器人应用、面向客户的人工智能、自动化操作和食品制备技术。这种自动化已经取代了酒店业的许多工作岗位。尽管未来会出现新的工作岗位，但许多其他工作岗位将被淘汰，对新技能的需求正在上升。在酒店和服务行业，自动化已经影响了酒店客房登记、收银、清洁流程、调酒和食品服务。随着工作根据围绕COVID-19安全的新标准进行调整，这种情况正在迅速发生变化。近90%的酒店员工在疫情期间至少暂时失去了工作，他们缺乏设想和收获技术创新积极影响的方法。由机器人、政策、经济学、人机交互和组织动力学专家组成的研究团队试图通过让酒店员工与自动化的未来合作并从中受益，从而缓解这一日益严重的问题，并为所有利益相关者提供最大的机会和积极的结果。该项目将通过一系列研讨会，汇集研究人员、政策专家、工会领导人和成员以及主要酒店管理学院的利益相关者，创造可推广的知识。具体而言，研究团队将通过广泛的文献综述来评估酒店服务的现状，与主要利益相关者举行研讨会，共同探索技术创新，并为酒店行业自动化技术的未来合作制定战略路线图。该项目由美国国家科学基金会未来工作人类技术前沿跨部门计划资助，旨在通过推进与人类工人和谐运作的智能工作技术的设计，促进对工作环境中相互依赖的人类技术伙伴关系的更深层次的基本理解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Future of Work at the Human-Technology frontier planning grant focuses on creating new ways for hospitality workers to shape how automation will affect their industry and their jobs. It has been widely predicted that the hospitality industry will experience significant job shifts in the coming decades. Automation plays a key role in causing these shifts, with examples including self-service kiosks, various applications of robotics, customer-facing AI, automated operations, and food preparation technologies. Such automation is already displacing many jobs in the hospitality industry. Although new jobs will be developed in the future, many others will be eliminated, and the need for new skill sets is rising. In the hospitality and service industries, automation has already affected hotel room check-in, cashiering, cleaning processes, bartending, and food service. This situation is changing even more rapidly as the work shifts in response to new standards around COVID-19 safety. Nearly 90% of hospitality workers lost work at least temporarily during the pandemic and they lack ways to envision and reap the positive impacts of technology innovation. The research team of experts in robotics, policy, economics, human-computer interaction, and organizational dynamics seeks to mitigate this growing problem by allowing hospitality workers to partner with and benefit from the future of automation and to maximize opportunities and positive outcomes for all of its stakeholders. The project will create generalizable knowledge through a series of workshops that bring together researchers, policy experts, union leaders and members, and stakeholders from leading hospitality schools. Specifically, the research team will assess the current state of hospitality services through a broad literature review, conduct workshops with key stakeholders, collectively explore technology innovations, and develop a strategic roadmap for future collaboration around automation technologies in the hospitality industry. This project has been funded by the NSF Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier cross-directorate program to promote deeper basic understanding of the interdependent human-technology partnership in work contexts by advancing design of intelligent work technologies that operate in harmony with human workers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.