LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fourth, the leader in workforce and inventory solutions for the restaurant, hotel, retail, and leisure industries, today announced the launch of Fourth AI Platform built and trained on the largest data set in the industry.
“The complexity of operating a restaurant or hotel has exploded,” said Clinton Anderson, CEO of Fourth, “which has kept managers chained to their laptops instead of out on the floor with their guests and staff. The Fourth AI Platform lets managers focus on people, service, and creativity, rather than on constant firefighting. With our AI models trained on the industry's largest dataset, we believe Fourth is uniquely positioned to embed AI across our customers entire restaurant operations.”
Companies like PizzaExpress, Wagamama, Stonegate and Cote are among the many businesses enjoying the competitive advantage this technology delivers. The Fourth AI Platform is the first of its kind with a set of AI-based workforce and inventory solutions purpose-built for hospitality operators.
Fourth’s Scheduling solution now benefits from AI to predict highly accurate demand forecasts, Auto-Scheduling to recommend optimal shift patterns and Shift Pooling to optimise the deployment of available workers. It is the first of its kind in the industry and radically improving the speed and effectiveness of your operations. By harnessing the AI-driven insights and actions, operators can make much faster, far more informed decisions to optimise labour spend while continually meeting customer demand.
“Since implementing Fourth’s new AI Platform, we have seen a 25% accuracy improvement on the previous system forecast,” said Graham Fenwick, Productivity & Change Director, PizzaExpress. “The model, which uses machine learning, gives managers a more accurate baseline from which they can build and tweak using their own knowledge and experience to deliver a highly accurate forecast for scheduling their team. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with Fourth on developing the system.”
Fourth’s inventory products will also begin to utilise AI Forecasting from Spring 2024, to optimise purchasing, prep, and stock control. It enables businesses to reduce the manual effort to identify the optimal ordering and inventory, while also controlling costs and avoiding food waste.
The Fourth AI Platform sets the stage for a high-value, high-impact AI-based future for the industry.
"Investing in our AI platform for Hospitality has proven to be a game-changer for our customers, enabling them to rapidly deploy AI in their businesses without the need for technical expertise or infrastructure," explains Christian Berthelsen, Chief Technology Officer of Fourth. “Harnessing AI through the Fourth platform gives them a substantial competitive advantage in the industry."
Christian continues, "Gone are the days of tedious spreadsheet calculations for predicting schedules, managing inventory and coordinating job postings. Our cutting-edge platform continuously learns from each customers data and recommends the next best actions. Senior leaders, managers and frontline workers can simply review and approve the platform’s AI-driven suggestions, freeing up valuable time to focus on business growth and delivering exceptional service to customers. AI has the power to genuinely transform our industry for the better.”
The Fourth AI Platform is generally available today, offering AI forecasting for scheduling. A strong pipeline of new capabilities is planned in 2024, advancements in real-time insights and actions, events and forecasting algorithms, back-office automation and above-store insights in Scheduling and Inventory.
Find out more by visiting uk.fourth.com/solution/ai
About Fourth
When every hour of every shift matters, Fourth helps restaurants, retailers, and hotels conquer the day with data-driven workforce and inventory technology. The Fourth AI Platform leverages more than 20 years of rich data and advanced analytics to deliver actionable insights and demand forecasting for optimising operations, maximising margins, and empowering employees. With a streamlined business powered by the Fourth AI Platform, industry operators can act with certainty and conquer with confidence whatever comes their way every day. Fourth serves more than 15,000 customers across 100,000 locations globally. For more information, please visit uk.fourth.com.
