At last week’s inaugural Digiday Startup Challenge, Hilton Worldwide and its agency iCrossing were looking for a partner that could help the hotelier raise its customer experience to a new and innovative level.
“Doing that at scale globally is difficult,” said Joshua Sloser, vp of product innovation and Hilton’s representative at the challenge. With a portfolio that includes 11 different brands and 4,200 hotels, Hilton is a massive company. But they think they’ve found a companion who’s up to the task: artificial intelligence platform DigitalGenius.
Mikhail Naumov, president of Digital Genius, pitched the startup’s technology and its ability to take any body of knowledge, learn it and have a full discussion about it. Alan Turing would be proud.
In practice, it could remove pain points from Hilton’s customers’ journey by interacting fluidly with guests about their upcoming, current or past stay at the right time, and with the right human tone – all through the convenience of text messaging.
Once a reservation is booked, Naumov explained, the customer receives a shortcode he or she can text message at any time. If a guest is running late, for example, they can text the service to hold their reservation. They can also order room service, and at the end of their stay the AI can invite them to join Hilton HHonors, the company’s rewards program. These are just some of the examples Naumov offered in the semifinal presentation, viewable below at the 45-minute mark.
Ad position: web_incontent_pos1
The event also included semifinalists uVore, TV On The Go, CrowdFlik, Movable Media and Zuppler, with the latter two joining DigitalGenius in the finals.
Digiday Platform Summit Startup Challenge from Digiday on Vimeo.
Ad position: web_incontent_pos2
More in Announcement
Sliders test article
Agencies hope connected TV and digital out-of-home will play a bigger role in upcoming elections and politics — especially for smaller media agencies that are handling many of the less visible races in the crowded political space. For a number of media agencies looking to place their political ad dollars down in this major election […]
The NFL, Nickelodeon, Food Network and Harvard Business Review are Digiday Media Awards finalists
Integration of emerging technology, audience engagement, unique content formats, branding and cross-promotion emerged as significant themes among this year’s Digiday Media Awards shortlist. With publishers and brands looking to reinforce their positions as industry leaders, they are also emphasizing quantifiable metrics and real-world impact to highlight the success of their initiatives. In the Best Use […]
PepsiCo, Innovid and Paramount+ are 2024 Digiday Video and TV Awards winners
This year’s Digiday Video and TV Awards winners found success with emotional stories and meaningful experiences that foster connections and drive brand affinity. This storytelling extended to social video campaigns, emerging technologies and offerings to reach wider audiences with compelling content. For instance, in the Best Ad Tech Innovation category, PepsiCo won for using enhanced […]
Ad position: web_bfu