Recently, Elon Musk stated that there’s no point going to medical school because in five years we’ll have robots capable of giving us access to the best healthcare available.
Five years. Maybe ten. The exact number matters less than the question it raises: if this is true, what happens to education as we know it?
We live in an era where information is practically free and available 24 hours a day. Anyone with a smartphone has access to more knowledge than all the libraries of the last century combined. Artificial intelligence only accelerates this.
But here’s the paradox: more information doesn’t mean more knowledge. It means more noise.
The real value is no longer in accumulating information. It’s in knowing how to curate it. Filter it. Understand what’s useful and what’s distraction. And who knows how to do this best? People with experience on the ground. Those who’ve done it, made mistakes, and learned.
Traditional education will have to adapt. Stop competing with AI — a battle lost from the start — and focus on “how to use it”. Teach people to think with these tools, not despite them.
In the previous post, we talked about AI as a tool. A good tool, but just that. And we stand by that position. However, we recognise it will completely change the paradigm of how we absorb and process information.
In hospitality, this is already happening. Marketing departments, Human Resources, more “back-office” areas — they’re already benefiting from these new tools. At Salfino, we’ve been working with some managers in these departments, on tools we consider crucial for this new phase.
But there’s something AI won’t replace.
True hospitality is human.
A robot can optimise a booking. It can personalise a recommendation. It can even anticipate needs based on data. But it can’t create that genuine moment between two people. The smile that’s not in the script. The attention that makes a guest feel seen.
That’s what separates a good hotel from an excellent one. It’s not the technology — it’s the human interaction.
The tools will change. The essence won’t.