Accor taps into AI’s “emotional hunger”

Accor’s chief loyalty and ecommerce director, Mehdi Memici, told delegates at WIT Middle East that its focus on providing unique experiences to loyalty scheme members is driven by artificial intelligence’s “emotional hunger”.

His observations align with one of the industry’s major dilemmas in the age of AI - how brands can remain discoverable as travelers move away from legacy channels for search, discovery and inspiration, and look instead to AI.

“When members talk about their experiences it gets picked up by AI and this reinforces our ability to engage customers,” he said. “Proprietary assets create differentiation and resonance. Before, differentiation used to be social media led. Now it's actually AI search led."

He referenced some of the recent member-only experiences realised through Accor’s longstanding commercial relationship with European soccer champions Paris Saint-Germain, such as the All Accor Dream Tournament.

Accor has renewed its partnership with PSG through to 2030, and has also recently revamped its scheme with All Accor + , a programme that members pay to be part of.

“I keep saying this to my team - do you realize that we are in an environment where we're asking customers to pay for their loyalty? So, we better be up to the level and deliver benefits that resonate with them.”

Evidence suggests that the team is delivering benefits that resonate. “In Asia Pacific, 40% of our loyalty turnover is generated by these paid members, and the usage factor is 80%."

His interview also touched on other industry dilemmas, such as maintaining the human component of the hospitality experience in an increasingly digitally dominated world. His argument is that combining both brings Accor into what he described as “the ‘be remembered ‘sphere”.

“We are a human-powered industry, and we always will be, because that's the differentiation we have. But when you use data to personalize the stay, predict what the next best action will be, to make sure that customers feel that we know who they are and that we want it to be a memorable experience for them, that’s how you get remembered.

“That is AI-powered, but it's human enabled.”