Innovation

🏨 First Hospitality expanded into Oklahoma, Georgia, the Bahamas, and further in Wisconsin and Kentucky. In 2024, the company managed 70 hotels with over 10,000 rooms and 3,500 employees. It assumed management of properties such as the Lively Hotel on OAK – Tapestry by Hilton in Oklahoma City and launched Carnivale Bahamas. Hotel Ardent in Dayton, Ohio, is set to open in February. New verticals for Full Service and Lifestyle Hotels and Premium Select Service Hotels were created, along with First Analytics, a data platform using Microsoft Power BI.

📱 ChatGPT's "Operator" AI agent demonstrates an integration with Booking.com for booking flights, with a video credit to Rowan Cheung. Although payment is currently manual, future integration may include website logins, credit card storage like Perplexity Shopping, digital wallets, and digital identity for seamless transactions. Figures or specific dates are not mentioned in the excerpt.

📈 Stable Kernel, a digital transformation company, has launched its Data & AI Practice, led by Ben Manning, Ph.D., focusing on AI and data solutions with Agentic AI for business transformation. Agentic AI allows autonomous decision-making and collaboration, enhancing operational efficiency and personalization across industries. A quick-service restaurant (QSR) benefited from their services with an 80% faster time to market, reducing promotion rollout from 3 weeks to 3 days. The company's AI-powered analytics and centralized data lakehouse have transformed operations, boosting customer reach, online orders, and revenue across thousands of locations. A video-on-demand platform used Stable Kernel's services for demand forecasting, content recommendation optimization, scaling for subscriber growth, and innovation, maintaining competitiveness in a dynamic market.

📢 In San Francisco last weekend, Toast ads were spotted in the Castro Street Muni station. Within the last week, Toast released a three-minute short starring chef-turned-actor Matty Matheson at Manhattan's Marea restaurant. The marketing campaign by Toast's CMO, Kelly Esten, aims at restaurant people and also seeks to increase brand awareness with the general public. Toast retracted a controversial 99-cent charge in 2023 after backlash from restaurant customers. CEO Aman Narang announced last summer that Toast is expanding from restaurants to grocery and convenience stores. The latest ad involves actors and Marea's executive chef, PJ Calapa, but the waitstaff was not acting.

```html 📢 ``` In a Jan. 23, 2025 podcast episode, Michael Levie discusses innovation in hospitality, advocating for "importing" ideas and cross-industry skills. Supported by Shiji Group, a global hospitality technology leader, the episode encourages implementing ideas for business enhancement and improving guest experiences. Music provided by Bespoke Sound, specializing in Music Identity Design for hospitality brands.