Why These Operators Are Skipping the Pilot Phase
Photo Credit: Wei Manfredi, IHG Hotels & Resorts (L) and Arun Nagarajan, Evolve (C), speaking at Skift Data + AI Summit on June 3, 2026 in New York City. Skift
Skift Take
The hospitality companies scaling AI fast aren't running better pilots. They've stopped thinking in pilots at all.
When Evolve launched an AI platform to address routine guest inquiries near the start of the year, the vacation rental company decided to forego traditional pilot structure and commit to scaling from the start.
In roughly 120 days, the company went from resolving 30% of conversations without human intervention to 60%. Chief Product and Technology Officer Arun Nagarajan said there were mistakes made and “a few embarrassing moments,” but the company quickly scaled to a successful product. Response times dropped, and the platform was able to address inquiries in users’ native language.
“By calling something a pilot, sometimes you reserve a little bit of gumption. … You sort of say, well, that's just a pilot, let's not worry about connecting to these systems, let's not hold it to a higher standard,” Nagarajan said at Wednesday
