ROSE HALL, St James — President of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) Robin Russell is urging local players to capitalise on opportunities available from artificial intelligence (AI) before they get left behind.

“It’s going to take a while to recover if you are not first to market,” he warned.

He was speaking with the Jamaica Observer on the first day of Jamaica Product Exchange (Japex), being held at Montego Bay Convention Centre. Japex is the JHTA’s flagship event that brings buyers and sellers together to hammer out deals that often have far-reaching implications for the tourism sector. AI was one of the items on the agenda this year.

“We know that the Jamaica Tourist Board is using AI to generate campaigns, and they’re working very closely with Accenture Song to make it happen. It’s now for us as hoteliers, and the industry on a whole, to start embracing AI [so] that we will be first to market,” Russell urged.

His comments dovetailed with those of Jatinder Singh, global head of data and analytics of Accenture Song, one of the presenters on day one of the three-day conference.

“You are going to miss out on people that are the early adopters and really taking advantage of these tools and techniques and are going to leapfrog and take over, and you’re going to be left so far behind that you’re not going to be able to play catch up,” Singh cautioned the gathering on Monday.

He also spoke of the opportunities to “reskill and upskill” talent that AI brings.

During his presentation, Singh pointed out that Accenture Song is looking at adding 40,000 people to its staff to work on AI-related developments.

He highlighted the benefits that technology can present for Jamaica’s tourism sector, adding that it can be used to augment the visitor experience.

“Services are obviously extremely important within tourism,” he remarked. “So, how do we use the power of this technology to ensure that you know the visitors are going to have a better experience, which will then [make them] want to come back to Jamaica as well — so I definitely see the applications for the tourism industry for sure.”

As in other industries, questions have been raised about the negative impact that AI may have, such as technological advancements leading to job losses. Russell said he is not worried about this.

“I’m not overly concerned because Jamaica’s tourism is based on our locals. We are the persons that make the industry thrive. People come because they are looking to forge relationships with us and if that continues to happen, I don’t see it as a major threat,” he told the Observer.

“We are the backbone of tourism so we need to use AI — and not AI using us,” he added.