Amid the AI and robot craze, the horeca industry needs a place to know which technology is really worth investing in

Artificial intelligence can answer guests, robots can serve food, smart glasses translate conversations right before your eyes, and virtual reality allows buyers to step into a villa while still thousands of kilometers away. Technology for the hotel and restaurant industry has never been as abundant as it is today. But with more choices, one question becomes harder to answer: which technology is truly worth the money, time, and resources for a business to implement? In this context, the fact that HORECFEX has been certified by the Vietnam Hotel Association as the largest annual forum on applied technology in the HORECA industry in Vietnam not only speaks to the scale of the event but also shows an increasingly clear market demand: the industry needs a regular meeting point where technology is placed alongside practical operational problems before becoming an investment decision.

Technology in hotels was once a relatively easy scope to define. Businesses invested in management systems, reservation software, in-room equipment, or digitized a few processes and could quite quickly visualize which department that technology served.

The current picture is much more complex. AI is moving from chatbots answering questions to systems capable of processing multiple workflow steps. Robots are stepping out of demonstrations to appear in lobbies, restaurants, and operational areas. Smart glasses bring data and translation directly into the line of sight. Virtual reality, spatial computing, projection technology, automation, and data platforms are constantly opening up new possibilities.

The problem for businesses is therefore no longer a lack of technology to choose from. On the contrary, the challenge increasingly lies in choosing among too many technologies that all promise to make hotels smarter, faster, and more efficient.

New technology is not necessarily the technology a business needs

A receptionist robot might impress during a few minutes of demonstration, but does a hotel that already has an efficient front-desk team really need to invest in it? An AI system can analyze large amounts of data, but if internal data is still fragmented, is the business ready to use it? Projection Mapping can completely transform the look of a ballroom, but if the frequency of events is low, is that investment reasonable?

The same solution might be very suitable for a resort with hundreds of rooms but become redundant for a small-scale hotel. A technology that creates clear efficiency for a restaurant chain might not necessarily solve the problems of an independent establishment. Even when the technology works well, businesses still have to consider integration capabilities, operating costs, personnel training, maintenance, and return on investment time.

This is the part that is easily overlooked when the market constantly talks about “the latest technology.”

HORECA professionals don’t just need to know what a solution can do, they need to know if it is worth doing for them.

It is precisely the gap between those two questions that creates the reason for a specialized technology forum to exist. HORECFEX doesn’t need to decide for the business which product is best; the value lies in creating an environment where technology can be seen, tested, questioned, and placed alongside the real needs of the people who will use it.

“Annual” and “Applied” are more important than a title of scale

The fact that the Vietnam Hotel Association certified HORECFEX as the largest annual forum on applied technology in the HORECA industry in Vietnam holds special significance in two elements: “annual” and “applied.”

Technology changes too fast for businesses to update just once and then use the same set of knowledge for many years. A solution still in the testing phase today could become a common tool next year; conversely, a trend that was talked about a lot could reveal its limitations when entering real-world operations.

Therefore, the industry needs a meeting point that is updated periodically. Not to chase a new “trend” every year, but to look back and see what has actually moved from trend to application, what is just beginning to form, and what lacks sufficient grounds for investment.

The “applied” factor is equally important. A technology exhibition can show viewers new equipment. But for a hotelier, the question only begins to become valuable when that equipment is placed into a work shift, into a restaurant’s peak hours, into a lobby with dozens of guests waiting to check in, or into a ballroom that needs to be constantly transformed according to customer requirements.

That is also where the voice of a professional organization like the Vietnam Hotel Association becomes noteworthy. Suppliers understand their products, but it is the operators who best understand what happens when that product enters a real hotel.

An application forum needs both sides.

HORECFEX is where technology must answer harder questions

One of the most notable values of HORECFEX lies in the fact that technology is placed in front of exactly the people capable of asking it questions very different from those of an ordinary visitor.

Investors care about efficiency and payback time. General Managers look at the impact on the entire operation. The IT department asks about integration capabilities. Revenue management wants to know if the solution creates additional business value. HR is concerned with how the team needs to be retrained. Front-of-house and F&B staff look at speed, convenience, and guest reactions.

The same product, but when passed through these perspectives, the question “what’s new in technology?” quickly becomes “what problem does the technology solve?”

HORECFEX VIETNAM 2026 is clearly showing that approach. Rokid smart glasses are placed in the context of translation and displaying information within the line of sight. Meta Quest 3 is used to bring viewers into a 360-degree space. Unitree robots are viewed from the perspective of patrolling and safety; OrionStar approaches the problem of reception and multilingual communication; KEENON goes into service and transport tasks in restaurants.

Projection Mapping also doesn’t just appear as a light show. For MICE or resort professionals, this technology suggests the possibility of transforming ballrooms, facades, or event spaces without having to change the physical structure.

The important thing is not whether those technologies are impressive. Greater value emerges when attendees begin to imagine how they will work in their own business.

A service robot is only truly evaluated when the operator looks at the aisle width, peak hour speed, and how it coordinates with staff. Translation glasses are only worth considering when placed alongside the number of international guests the team is serving. A virtual reality tour only becomes a business tool when it helps a buyer abroad get closer to a venue selection decision.

This is the shift from “interesting technology” to “usable technology.”.

Technology cannot be evaluated if separated from the market, people, and business

This is also why a forum for HORECA technology cannot just have AI, robots, and equipment.

A hotel might see a very attractive automation solution, but before investing, it still needs to understand where market demand is going. An investor needs data before deciding to expand. A business wanting to use robots still has to determine which tasks should be assigned to machines and which should be kept for humans. A modern operating system also doesn’t create much value if guests don’t know about the product or if the sales process still has many bottlenecks.

That is why at HORECFEX, perspectives on market data, traveler behavior, human resources, technology, operations, and supply need to be placed side by side.

STR can help businesses understand the market and competitive position. Google and TikTok show how guest discovery and search behaviors are changing. Technology providers bring new operational solutions. Hoteliers bring practical questions from their own businesses.

When those perspectives meet, technology is no longer evaluated only by technical specifications.

It is placed into a larger problem: what does the business need to change and is technology really the right way to create that change?

From that perspective, the theme of HORECFEX VIETNAM 2026 – “ALL YOU NEED – Knowledge, Technology, Supply, and Connection” – reflects a clear chain of decisions. Knowledge helps define the problem and market context; Technology opens up new ways to solve it; Supply brings solutions into the realm of implementation; and Connection helps those with a problem meet the right people capable of solving it together.

No single factor truly realizes its value when standing alone.

A good technology forum doesn’t necessarily make businesses invest more

AI will continue to develop. Robots will become increasingly flexible. Smart glasses, spatial computing, and technologies that haven’t appeared today will continue to enter the hotel and tourism industry.

Businesses cannot stay out of all that change, but they also cannot chase everything.

And perhaps this is a more appropriate measure for the role of HORECFEX.

It’s not about how much technology is brought in. It’s not about how many new devices make viewers stop. It’s not even necessarily about how many contracts are signed within the two days.

A good technology forum can create value through non-investment decisions: when a business realizes a solution is not yet suitable, when a hotel owner understands they need to fix their processes before buying more technology, or when an executive discovers another problem more important than what they were planning to spend money on.

In other words, the value lies not in making the industry buy more technology.

From new technology to the problem of effective integration

That question will also be brought directly into Technology Integration Forum I, with the theme “Driving Successful Technology Integration”, taking place from 13:30 – 16:15 on August 20 at the Main Hall within the framework of HORECFEX VIETNAM 2026.

The session goes from how Meta platforms are being applied in the Hotel – Tourism industry, new growth drivers of the market with TikTok Vietnam, to an increasingly important question for businesses: is the hotel really ready for AI? Because bringing a new technology into operation is not just about buying more software or equipment, but also involves data, processes, people, and the ability to integrate with existing systems.

Subsequent content expands to how AI personalizes customer experience and impacts pricing, as well as the growing role of AI in hotel marketing activities. Thus, the story no longer stops at what AI can do, but moves closer to the problems businesses have to solve every day: where to apply it, how much to prepare, and how to make technology actually create business efficiency.

This is exactly the spirit that HORECFEX wants to set for the technology story: not chasing technology just because it’s new, but finding ways to put the right technology into the right problem, at the right time.

It lies in helping the industry invest more wisely.

That is also why the recognition of the Vietnam Hotel Association for HORECFEX carries meaning beyond a title of scale. In an industry where the pace of innovation is increasingly fast, an annual forum can serve as a point of reference: where new technology is placed alongside operational reality, market data, and business needs before a business decides to move forward.

HORECFEX VIETNAM 2026 takes place on August 20–21 at the Ariyana Convention Centre Danang. In the context of AI, robots, and a host of new technologies constantly creating promises for the future, the question worth bringing to the event is perhaps no longer “what’s new this year?”

But rather: among those new things, which one is truly worth the HORECA industry starting to invest in today?