The Right People at the Right Time | AI Staff Scheduling | Hospitality B2B Portfolio | Sam Benton
Exclusive interview with Sam Benton, Account Executive at Hospitality, Sona. In this interview, Sam Benton of Sona talks about how the company uses AI to help hospitality businesses put the right people in the right place at the right time, how it supports staff training, onboarding and pay, and what the company plans to do next. Key Highlights: 1. Sam Benton says the event is going well, with yesterday busy, the first day a bit quiet and today a lot busier. 2. He describes Sona as the future of how hospitality businesses interact with their staff and move them around the business. 3. He gives a pub example. Five staff behind a quiet bar costs the business money with no revenue, and a bar five people deep with only one person serving means customers walk out and revenue is lost. 4. He says Sona uses AI and everything it knows about a business’s people to make sure the right people are there when needed, without too many in the business. 5. He says Sona also looks after how businesses train their staff, onboard them and pay them. 6. He says Sona has only been around for five years, which he sees as a real benefit when it comes to AI. 7. He compares putting AI into very old technology with trying to turn a VW Beetle into a Tesla, and says Sona uses AI in everything it does. 8. He explains that the AI looks at forecasts, such as how much money a business is likely to make in the next week based on weather, local events, history and other factors. 9. He says this is combined with everything known about the staff, so the right people are in the right place at the right time and a business can make as much money as possible without spending too much when people aren’t there. 10. He says the priority for the upcoming year is to continue to scale. 11. He says Sona is headquartered in Soho, London, operates in Europe and has just opened in the US, and wants to grow those parts of the business. 12. He says Sona is winning some of the largest hospitality brands in the UK and globally, and is excited about going into retail. 13. He says he doesn’t know what the horizon is, and hopes the company keeps growing at the same rate. About Travel And Tour World: Travel And Tour World is a global travel media platform covering travel, tourism, hospitality, aviation, MICE, cruise, and luxury travel, with readership across 195 countries. [Sona, Sona AI, hospitality AI, workforce management, staff scheduling, hospitality technology, restaurant technology, labour cost, AI scheduling, hospitality staffing, employee onboarding, hospitality software, AI workforce management for hospitality, AI staff scheduling for pubs and restaurants, how AI forecasts hospitality staffing, reduce labour costs in restaurants with AI, right staff at the right time hospitality, hospitality staff onboarding and training software, hospitality payroll and workforce platform, AI for restaurant labour forecasting, hospitality workforce app London, hospitality technology startup expanding to the US, workforce management software for retail and hospitality, Sam Benton, Travel And Tour World] #sona #hospitalitytech #workforcemanagement #aiinhospitality #restauranttech #hrtech #futureofwork #hospitalityindustry #ai #startuplife #TravelAndTourWorld