Join us Dec. 1-3 in Nashville for the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit
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.
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.
More in Announcement
Adidas and Gamefam, Poppi and Walmart Connect are winners for the 2026 Digiday Awards
The 2026 Digiday Awards winners reflect a media and marketing landscape in which cultural relevance, audience participation and measurable business impact increasingly go hand in hand. From immersive digital experiences to campaigns that turned social media conversations into product launches, this year’s honorees demonstrate how brands are finding new ways to earn attention. Their work […]
Amazon News, Politico and Warner Bros. Discovery are finalists for the 2026 Digiday Awards finalists
This year’s Digiday Awards finalists demonstrated how innovation, audience insights and multiplatform storytelling can work together to create more engaging and accessible experiences. Their work reflected a focus on understanding audiences, reaching them across channels and turning creative investments into measurable results. These nominees represent a media landscape where effective storytelling must balance experimentation with […]
PolyAI, Taboola, Contentful and Docusign are 2026 Digiday Technology Awards winners
This year’s Digiday Technology Awards honor the companies embracing AI and automation tools to enhance personalized experiences, enable precise targeting and drive performance across platforms and channels. Winners are also integrating advanced e-commerce technologies and focusing on integrated measurement and analytics solutions that unveil deeper performance tracking. In the Best AI Tool category, PolyAI — […]