[00:00:00] Kieron Bailey:
Welcome, welcome, welcome. This is the Restaurant Talks podcast with our good friends at Safewry Oil. My name is Kieran Bailey. Some of you have seen me before. Of course you have. You recognize the caps. And I'm here today to talk a little bit about technology, which somebody knows substantially more about it than I do, as I'm a bit of a Luddite. And Jim's going to take me down a happy road, and he's going to make me feel safer and more secure by the time we finish this conversation. Jim, that's what I'm looking for from you.
So, Jim, do you want to tell the nice people a bit about yourself, who you are, kind of what your background is and why we're here to have a chat today?
[00:00:32] Jim Harris:
Yeah. I'm Jim Harris. I specialize in food and beverage software for folks servicing the hospitality industry. So they're selling to restaurants and stores and hotels and want to make sure they have the right technology to deliver on time at the right price to make sure that the.
The folks serving those consumers are happy with what they have. So I've been doing it for 25 years. I've seen a lot of changes in technologies, mostly good in terms of speed of the technology and also flexibility.
I really look back on when the first iPhone came out. I remember a lot of owners that were in their past 50 really struggled with technology, but once they realized they could touch it with their finger and would actually do something, it made a huge difference. And they're like, hey, my grandkids can do this. How come my sales team can't be out there, you know, doing this technology? So it definitely changed the perception of technology when it got easier. And I think the Android and the Apple devices really made that possible for people to think it's going to work. I heard someone recently say, like, the generation now that are in their high school, early college age, they just think technology should work. And, Kieran, you and I are old enough to know it didn't really work.
[00:01:46] Kieron Bailey:
There's been many times when it most certainly has not worked. And I remember buying my first iPhone and just feeling a little bit overwhelmed by it, to be fair. And at that time, I thought, I'm pretty cool. You know, I've had an ipod.
I was ahead of the game musically, but still, it felt like a lot. So I love that. It's a great analogy. And there's a reason why I'm an iPhone user, because technology scares me a little bit when it comes to Androids. You know, it should speak to me that personalization element should really speak to me, but scares me, absolutely scares me. So let's jump in. Well, you've been at this for 25 years. So as a man who has spent a lot of time in operations personally, and I've had lots of people come and try and sell me tech solutions, one of the biggest challenges, I think, is trust. It is trust. How do I know that I can trust, and how do we build trust with those operators? And you've been through this process a lot, I imagine, to be fair, you've got a very trustworthy face. That's a great starting point, Jim. Right, already onto a winner. But how are you building trust? Straight away, when you walk through a door and you start to talk to an operator about what we're going to, what you can do to help them?
[00:02:49] Jim Harris:
I think a lot of it's just hearing their story, but also just letting them know we're trying to help make the right decision. We don't really know what it is until we start digging in, but everyone's got opportunities to add technology to streamline their business. There's still a lot of paper and there's a lot of spreadsheets out there that are not optimal in today's digital world. And, you know, people hold on to those pretty tightly in terms of those processes. So getting people to do the change is hard. So it's really just being a little softer and a little more patient with people as they go through it, try to map out what they currently do and see how we maybe cut out a few steps, maybe organize things a little bit differently, help them save some money, but also, you know, get some upside, maybe be more efficient and make a little bit more money or serve their customers better. I usually like to frame it as, hey, your customers have a lot of expectations. I was using the Apple example. The other one is Amazon, and what they've done to people's expectations of delivery of services, like how fast things should be delivered and what information and how frictionless it is. Right. You get a notification, it comes on your phone and it gets delivered. You know, you're done. And I think a lot of people in the business world underestimate how much people bring that to their. To their business life. I expect if I place an order on E Commerce, that the order is going to flow through and I'm going to get good notifications and it's going to be delivered at the right price on time.
So I think expectations have changed a lot.
[00:04:14] Kieron Bailey:
You're not wrong. I think, I mean, Amazon's a really good example.
They've done a thing, they've trained us basically, they've trained us as human beings as to what we should expect from an experience.
I went to go and order something on Amazon a couple of weeks ago and they told me it was going to take me two days to get it. And I was annoyed. I was annoyed that it was going to take 48 hours for this thing to be from somewhere magically that's nowhere near me to be in the palms of my hand. And I'm frustrated. I'm like, why am I annoyed by this? That's like 48 hours is not an unreasonable time frame. But they've kind of, they've done this thing where they, they've literally trained us to set expectations and then that. You're absolutely right. That carries through to every part of our lives.
So how do you see that that has carried through to maybe tech within hospitality?
[00:05:00] Jim Harris:
I think like using a beverage example. Let's say you're a distributor of wine and spirit products and you're delivering to restaurants or hotels your products.
You know, the, the bartenders and the bar managers really expect you to have an E commerce website that's fully developed in terms of content, that has their sales history, has what they owe money on in the ability to place an order and know what the inventory is, whether they're going to get it or not.
So I think there's a lot of expectations there and some folks have done a really good job on it, but it's pretty complicated. I know in the US there's tiers of, you know that you have to have a distributor and that creates a lot more information overload for people. So. Because they carry a lot of items. But I think that really, Karen, is a big part of it is that people expect they want to be able to order 24 7. They don't want to have to wait for a wrap. They want to be able to know that the price, if they add more volume, they might get a better price. They don't want to have to work through someone to get that special price. And that's what a lot of times the sales reps in the old school world are trying to do. It's like, hey, don't order there, I'll get you a better deal.
Because I know how to do that. And that I think goes against the business ownership a little bit in terms of what they're trying to add value to the customer.
But yeah, that's definitely something I've seen over the last Year, you know, bunch of years. There's a lot of resistance to getting outside that sales rep relationship for good reason. That does drive a lot of business. But there's a lot of competitors out there. So you really have to figure out where, who you're competing against and how you're serving your customers. At the end of the day, it's.
[00:06:35] Kieron Bailey:
A really interesting point that I think, I think all operators have had, historically have had sales reps that they built that relationship. And we started off talking about trust. Well, you build that trust, you build that understanding, you build that knowledge and that kind of connection with a sales rep. It's not quite the same when you've got a 247 ordering system and you don't feel like maybe you can get the best deal that's available because you know that Jim, Jim's going to work it out for me. He's going to get me where I need to be. But actually if the system is, if the system is effective and it's, and it's set up correctly, then the best price will just be available anyway. It's a simple answer.
So we're not relying on that relationship.
[00:07:13] Jim Harris:
Well, Kieran, the enemy in sales is always time sales. So if you're a bartender or a buyer at a restaurant and I'm trying to sell you wine and spirits, if I spend, I only have 15 minutes with you, if I spend 10 minutes getting a reorder on products you've already carried and I only now have five to show you a new Pinot noir or a new gin for a cocktail.
What if I had all 15 minutes? Because you've already placed your reorder, you already know what you want to reorder. Why spend time on that, get rid of that and focus on, hey, how do I increase your business? Maybe make a little bit more money on this drink menu or this wine buy the glass offering.
So I think there's a lot of opportunity there to, to use that wisely if you're a rep, to use that technology to get rid of the mundane everyday things and focus on the upsells.
[00:08:00] Kieron Bailey:
Yeah, I love that and I think it just makes so much sense. Operators, we're all of us, to be fair, we're all time poor. So anything that we can do to, to get that time given back and then we get to do something interesting with it. So you're right. You know what, you bring me some interesting products, you tell me some interesting stories that all of a sudden becomes a bit of an opener and a real door that we get to walk through together and all of a sudden my menu gets a little bit more interesting. My customers and my guests are starting to feel a little bit more excited because they're getting maybe more cutting edge product and all of a sudden we're all winning. To be fair, that becomes an easy win.
[00:08:36] Jim Harris:
Absolutely, absolutely.
There's a lot of joy at restaurants. I mean, I think people that get into the business really like the fact that people celebrate at restaurants. They celebrate all sorts of milestones, birthdays, anniversaries, those kind of things. So they, they're making people happy. And I think if you as a vendor to those folks, you know, bring that professionalism and also give them ways they can delight their guests, they're going to want to see you more than.
[00:09:00] Kieron Bailey:
The other rep.
Realistically speaking, I mean, I've always had this thing and I love Danny Mayer and he talks a lot about having isms. And one of my isms as an operator was that we're here to make memories, not memes. And I think the whole ecosystem is a part of that mission to make incredible memories for our guests and for our internal customers. I think we've all got them. And you're absolutely right that you get to be a part of that and you get to kind of contribute. And I guess realistically, if you're thinking about kind of, if you've got an online ordering system that is up to date and on point, one of the things that kind of, that we've noticed over here in the UK is obviously the tariffs that have kind of come into place across the US and I was kind of whizzing through some of your content on LinkedIn and it's a big conversation point, isn't it, that the tariffs have caused some real drama? Obviously great tech can be a facilitator to try and manage that particular challenge as best as possible. Do you think that's something that's available for the average hospitality can worker?
[00:10:06] Jim Harris:
I think it directly to the worker. I think there's, from a financial standpoint, understanding your true cost of goods sold is, is, is really important because prices are changing both from inflation and also these tariffs and other taxes. And if you have systems in place to help you manage that easily.
So when you get an invoice and you know exactly how to allocate that invoice against the products you've brought in, it helps you price your products better. So your consumer is seeing the best price that you can give them and you're making money on those things. I mean, Everyone wants lower prices, but they also want you to stay in business. So there's a balance there. And if you can give them good value in terms of what you're serving them, I think that helps. And a lot of that's driven by having really good cost information and being able to manage that.
That starts at the producer, whoever makes the product all the way through the distributor.
So having technology through all those different levels helps when it actually reaches the consumers.
Everyone's doing their best to give the best price possible for the value.
[00:11:07] Kieron Bailey:
Perfect. So let's go back to the start. Jim, how did you get into technology?
What was the driver for you? What was the thing about it that just made you think this is the thing for me, because 25 years, it's a long time to be doing this.
[00:11:19] Jim Harris:
Yeah, I've always gravitated towards technology. I come from a family of engineers, but they're on the physical part. I never really like the math of that, but I did like, you know, applying technology in the, in the world of sales and also operations. So I really, I like the process driven.
I can think in processes. I like, I like graphics, I like being able to explain things. And so I've just learned how to apply technology to that because that seemed like a good way to make money and help people, you know, make their businesses more effective.
[00:11:51] Kieron Bailey:
Love that. I think it's one of the things actually that a lot of people within hospitality have in common is we're pretty systems and process driven. To be fair, I think it's that easy to kind of, to think that systems and process kind of suck out creativity. But I utterly disagree. I think that they, they're a foundation for creativity and they actually are a hotbed for it because you build that kind of consistency of approach and that's. I know what I'm going to do and I know that when I do this, this happens next. Then all of a sudden I've got freedom to start thinking about the cool stuff that I want to do because I don't have to. I'm at that kind of state of unconscious competence where I don't have to worry about what's being done next. So systems of process make a lot of sense.
We do appreciate this.
[00:12:33] Jim Harris:
Like this morning I was on a call with a bakery and we were going through different folks with, on the shop floor. And the one that was the most fun to talk to was the person in charge of research and development. Her job is new recipes and she's always tweaking this and tweaking that and tracking the flavor profile and all the other things. And I'm starting to see some AI components that they're talking about. I don't think people really have aggressively put that in there, but coming up with different combinations of things to get better value out of the product, make it taste different, make it taste better, make it stand up on the shelf better. So much science that goes in into making products, products that we see every day on our shelves and in our hospitality locations that people don't realize. But she was really fun to talk to. She was so passionate about the work she was doing and the quality. And they were testing things after it came out of the oven and also through the line and the packaging. There's just so much detail that goes into everything you see all around you that people just take for granted. And it's so fun to see how they do it in the background.
[00:13:35] Kieron Bailey:
I love that obsession for detail on all of those steps. And you're just thinking, how do I make this the very best version of it that I can? And maybe the first draft, the second draft, the third draft is not it. But you get there just by reiterating, going step by step. Sounds like she's got an amazing job, to be honest with you.
And spending time with bakers always feels like a good use of a day. Good use of a day, I would say.
[00:13:56] Jim Harris:
Absolutely.
[00:13:57] Kieron Bailey:
Got to be a victory. So when we're thinking about tech, I'm thinking about how do we deploy tech? As a man who's kind of spent a lot of time working within restaurants and bars and things, and I've seen tech deployed, sometimes I've seen it deployed really, really well, and sometimes I've seen it deployed particularly poorly, and it's caused me a whole load of pain. How are we? Have you got any tips for kind of that flawless deployment? And I say flawless with this aspirational hope, because that's. That's a big one, isn't it, to say we're going to get a flawless deployment. But how. What tips have you got for me to say, how do we put this tech, any tech, I guess, into action in your business to ensure the best results?
[00:14:34] Jim Harris:
I think the biggest change that I've seen, really, it's been going on 20 years for the last seven to eight years, is cloud. Everything has gone to the cloud. And it just simplifies so much. Right? You used to have to have an IT person on staff to help you with the server setup and capacity and connectivity, and all that goes away when you go to the cloud, it's just easier and people are getting there. There's still a lot of people that have local computers that they run or servers that they run things on. But I think the cloud helps a lot. Karen and then also it gives you more options. But if you look around, like if you just count the number of software packages that you individually run every day, it's crazy how much software there is out there that all do a little bit and some overlap. So I think from an operator standpoint, it's how do you streamline it? And I think what's happening now that and I focus on the Microsoft products, Microsoft's main ERP system in the cloud, the two that they have are really taking over. So you can do more in one system, which really makes it easier because with Microsoft, they're embedded with Outlook for email, they're embedded with Excel. All that's all based in the product, so it comes out in one. And other systems have similar types of things. So really it, it's about how do you narrow down the list of products you use and get more out of those.
What I see a lot though is people try to solve one problem and they bring a piece of technology in, but it doesn't integrate with the other pieces. So you wind up like not getting the real value that you were hoping. And that's where like you were referring to it's not seamless anymore, it's just more work. Sometimes it's double entry, sometimes it's more training. You know, the systems don't look or feel the same. So I think in the next five years we're going to see more of that because more progress there. And I don't know how much you followed on the AI agent world that we're getting into now, but it's going to be fascinating to see how work has changed just from that technology.
[00:16:32] Kieron Bailey:
I mean, it is literally changing the game, the world of AI. And I mean, I am still, like I said, a bit of a Luddite. So I still have moments of fear that Sarah Connor was absolutely right and they're going to come and get us at some point. But I also know, I decided, I spent some time working with some folks who are, they're building AI agents for operators and kind of for their websites and various other things to be able to put it into work. And their entire obsession is again, it's about saving time.
I've got one guy, he's the founder of a brand called Yuda, and he's obsessed with saving operators time. And I Love that as a, as a kind of starting point.
[00:17:09] Jim Harris:
That's the gift.
[00:17:10] Kieron Bailey:
Well, that's, that's the joy, isn't it? Again, you go back to that idea. Once I've got a bit of free time, what can I do? Well, then I can start to do real one to ones with my people. Then I can start to actually go out and talk to my customers and listen to what they're telling me rather than kind of maybe scrolling through the Internet and kind of looking at reviews that kind of people have left. So it creates so much opportunity.
Do you think, do we ever run the risk, do you think where kind of operators lean on tech maybe more than they should? Because I think tech should just be a great facilitator for great experience because I look a lot at everything through the guest experience filter.
Does it make the experience better? Does it add value to the experience?
So do we run a risk where operators are potentially kind of leaning into it rather than just using it as a facilitator and potentially using it as a crutch? It's kind of where I'm going with that.
[00:18:02] Jim Harris:
I guess we're going to find out pretty quickly. I mean I just saw the first McDonald's that's fully automated just went live and so you don't even have to talk to anybody to get your food. They everything's robotics.
[00:18:13] Kieron Bailey:
Wow.
[00:18:14] Jim Harris:
In a place like McDonald's makes sense because it's so regimented and they've done a good job with production out, making everything production ready.
You're seeing where like bartenders, they can do like a bartender that's a robot, you know, has her arm and can do all the drinks and has all the things. So I think and those are novelties but you're going to see more of those because the cost of labor is pretty high. But the cost of those are high too. So I think Kieran, a lot to your answer is it depends on how the price of technology comes down.
If the price drops enough, I think you're gonna see maybe a tip where there's too much technology. But I don't see that happening. It usually takes longer for that curve to, to level out where a lot of people can put all that tech in but AI by itself won't do it. I think AI with robotics, that's where.
Because it's a physical world. Right.
The operator world. So if you don't have physical workers doing it. But I still think people want to talk to people. But if those people are freer because they're not Carrying the food back and forth or the trays of dishes and whatever those things are.
You know, there's a lot of things. I was just. A friend of mine was in the Detroit airport and they were. They were remarking that all the wheelchairs that used to be pushed by people are now basically like an Uber. You order it on an app and it shows up and it delivers you either from the airport, you know, from the. From the plane to the baggage to the curb, or the vice versa when you first get in. What a great use of technology, right? Like, it's kind of cool, right? That's the. I think the world we're going where a lot of those things are going to become commonplace, just like in California. Waymo and Uber and, excuse me, like, Tesla are really getting into the driverless cars. I don't know if you're seeing that over by you yet, but, you know, people say the first time they get in when they're like, whoa, you know, there's no driver in this car. And the second, third time after that, like, whatever, I'm just gonna read my phone, I'm gonna talk to my friends. Like you. Get you.
We're getting quicker at adopting technology because we're not as afraid of it.
[00:20:15] Kieron Bailey:
I think you're right. And I think.
I think we do just accept things more freely now. And I think, yes, we have the obsession with our phones in front of us anyway. So if we get into an Uber that is a driverless Uber, then are we going to lose too much sleep? I probably will, because I'm a Chatter.
So rather than my Uber driver having to say to me, kieran, would you like peace and quiet or would you like conversation? I generally ask them, would they like a chat or would they like some peace and quiet? Because. Because I like to. I like to have a conversation.
We over here don't have driverless cars on the road yet, but it's definitely coming. It's getting closer and closer. My wife works within the truck industry, and they're. They're looking at driverless trucks already, which is mildly scary, if I'm honest with a car is one thing. A. A huge HGV truck is a different conversation, to be fair. So there's. There is so much moving forward there. And. And I think you're probably right, actually, that the cost of robotics, you know, it's kind of. And the cost of AI, who is going to be able to afford to be able to do that. So there'll be a line that makes perfect sense. The McDonald's the robotic McDonald's kind of what has there been any kind of. Was is it too soon to see any feedback from it or have you ever heard anything about kind of what the customers are feeling when they're in there?
[00:21:29] Jim Harris:
I haven't heard much of it. I know it's something that everyone's going to be watching, right, because you know, the cost was significant. But the, we also know labor costs are hard, you know, so it's hard to, it's hard to get people to do those service jobs. So if you can find ways to maybe make them more interactive with customers and less task oriented, maybe that's still the benefit. So I don't know. I mean it's still too early to tell, but it's not if it's coming, Karen, it's. It's going to happen. It's right, like.
[00:21:58] Kieron Bailey:
Yeah, yeah, you're right. I guess McDonald's have been toying with. Well, they've been using the display screens, ordering screens for certainly over here for the last five years, I guess, to be fair. And if you go in and place your order without talking to somebody, then it's a small step away from placing your order and then your food being made without having to have a conversation with somebody. It's interesting, isn't it? QSR is definitely one of the first forward thinking parts of the business when it comes to the deployment of technology, I find.
[00:22:28] Jim Harris:
Is that something you're seeing on investment's pretty clear there. Like they know they, they know they can map out monthly, yearly, how many of everything they sell and what they sell so they can do the math on the return on investment pretty quickly. It's I think harder at some other types of businesses to do that.
[00:22:43] Kieron Bailey:
Yeah, for sure. And I guess you're looking in that particular space. You're looking for consistency in every single step.
So if it is machined or robotic, then you are going to get consistently the same product every single time, which is what we're aiming for.
How do you see AI adding value to hospitality? Kind of what's. Who is there anybody kind of using it well in the US right now who you're looking at and thinking that's very cool, they're changing the game a little bit with that.
[00:23:15] Jim Harris:
I'm sorry, could you repeat that?
[00:23:17] Kieron Bailey:
Yeah, sorry.
Is there anybody in the US right now who is using AI within hospitality and who's doing something very, very interesting and maybe kind of cool where you're looking at and thinking that's pretty impressive and that's got real kind of opportunity to go out to a wider. Wider part of the industry.
[00:23:38] Jim Harris:
Yeah. So I think we need to define it a little bit. So with AI, there's three levels.
The first level is when you type into chatgpt or one of the other. That's like level one where you get. You put something in, you get something back.
And the second one's gonna be where you have a process and it could include like five steps. And one of those has an AI component to it.
The bigger one with agents is basically you ask an agent to, let's say, book you a flight and it'll go out and do check flights, have your credit card, it'll create its own checklist.
So on level two, if there's a problem with the process, a human has to go change the process.
With AI, Kieran. I think the agent will be able to create its own steps based on the request.
And then one of the cool things is it could also go to another AI to check, make sure they did it right.
So there's this, like, other level component there that should be interesting. But I don't think that in hospitality, I still think there's so much physical that if you don't have robotics there to physical serve customers or interact, I don't think it works the same way.
And I think there's a lot of automation there. Now, I will say in food service, I've seen some really cool stuff where, you know, I can take your menu and I can upload it and I can read that menu and then make some estimations on how many servings you do per week or per month. And then substitute the ingredients and say, okay, you have these five ingredients in that fish offering that you have, and break those down in a way to say, okay, here's how we would help you save cost. And here's the ingredients that we could bring to the table to help you with that menu choice. I think you're going to see more of that, which will both be in E commerce, but also through the sales team to help people analyze, because the LLMs now and AI can read those so well now.
[00:25:36] Kieron Bailey:
So for those who aren't aware, LLMs is large language models.
[00:25:40] Jim Harris:
Yes, that's what ChatGPT is. That's what.
[00:25:43] Kieron Bailey:
And I told you I was a Luddite.
[00:25:45] Jim Harris:
Yeah, there you go. It's gotten so good at reading like a picture now. Like, you know, you can just take a picture of something and it'll read it in and it can digest that. So that helps in a ton of different ways. So Yeah, I think it's going to be, it's going to be like electricity, Kieran. It's going to be everywhere.
It's just a matter of how much you use love.
[00:26:07] Kieron Bailey:
That's a really nice analogy and I think you're right. I mean that I mentioned my Ray Ban metas. One of the things I like about them is I can just kind of just take a photo and say, hey, meta, what am I looking at? And it will pretty well break down what actually I'm looking at right now. If I'm looking at a picture, it'll tell me a bit about that picture, it'll tell me a bit about the artist. So, so things like that become, just become part of the way you live then to be fair. And I think like, generally when I bought these, my wife was like, you're not going to use those anywhere near as much as you think you are. And I was like, I will use them. Is the answer. I shall not be proven wrong and prove her correct.
She's right. Far more times about me and my sense, my poor decision making when it comes to spending money than is. It's good for me, Jim, to be fair. So I have to make sure I'm making this part of my life. But it's a really interesting thing actually. And if I'm in a foreign language, if I'm in a foreign country, it will translate what people are saying to me, which then like, is a game changer, to be honest with you. So those little things like this, which become easily accessible, start to really change the way in which we view the use and the deployment of AI.
[00:27:11] Jim Harris:
I guess I would say too, Karen, that one thing I suggest, and I'm seeing a lot more of this, is that if you're in an industry, whatever it is, and you have competitors, a lot of times your competitors are willing to share what they're doing from a technology standpoint.
You can, you know, through trade associations, through partnerships or just through LinkedIn or other ways of connecting with people. Just connect with people and say, hey, we're thinking about doing this operational change and hey, where are you with yours? What have you used, what worked, what didn't? I'm seeing a lot more of that collaboration and people are open to, you know, helping each other. So you gotta ask. But I think people are really usually very kind and giving your you information because it's not really going to change your business that much.
It's not like they're that competitive usually. It's not like Coke and Pepsi where they really like to fight it out.
[00:28:03] Kieron Bailey:
Yeah. There's recipe secrets beyond that.
[00:28:05] Jim Harris:
Don't have industries like that.
[00:28:06] Kieron Bailey:
So we're not there. You're right now, and you are absolutely correct. I was at a networking event yesterday in Birmingham, the West Midlands, and. And it's one of those events where lots of people, historically, I see. I have found historically that kind of certainly kind of from an operations perspective, people are very nervous about kind of talking about their problems and challenges. They'll happily talk about the stuff that's going well, but they don't really want to talk about the stuff that's not going quite so well. Whereas in this network, it's. It's the world, they're all just so open to talk about kind of what's good, what's. What's good, what's bad, and maybe you can give me some help. And. And I think the world is starting to open up to that now more and more where we just kind of just see that actually we're not in competition in this way now to. To that degree, actually, that we can't support each other and we can't give each other some. Some learnings from kind of maybe what went right for me previously and what went. What went wrong for me, that becomes more interesting, I guess, to be fair.
Do you find. Do you find over in the U.S. that kind of.
I used to hate networking, Jim, if I'm honest with you. I was terrified of the whole subject. Really made me uncomfortable.
Over in the US Is that a big thing where kind of there are hospitality networks where people are able to go out and connect and talk to each other, or is it just a case? Do you think of just going and talking to your neighbors, going and talking to kind of the folks on your street in your area and just having a conversation there?
[00:29:30] Jim Harris:
I doubt it's that much different. I mean, there's a lot of associations and trade shows and other events you can get involved with from a professional standpoint. But there's also lots of ways to just reach out to your friends and family, extend that. So, I mean, you still have to ask and you still have to be willing to talk to people. But I think if people really knew how kind most people are when they're asked, they would ask more.
[00:29:53] Kieron Bailey:
You're not wrong. You're not wrong. I think we kind of potentially have make this assumption that the folks aren't going to be so willing to give, when actually I think most people just are. It's one of the ways in which I got over my Fear of networking, Jim I just decided I'm going to start asking people loads of questions about themselves because most people are quite comfortable to talk about themselves. It's an easy thing.
All of a sudden it gets a little bit easier for me, to be fair, because I just have to throw a little bit in every now and again. And the world's a fabulous place to be fair. It becomes much, much easier.
So kind of what, what does the future look like, Jim? What, what's, what are you looking at and thinking this is good, this is interesting moving forward. And, and what, what are the opportunities for, for the industry?
[00:30:32] Jim Harris:
I think the big part is like, if you go back to like the late 90s, early 2000s, when the, we had the dot com bubble where there was just so much money going after businesses that really weren't feasible. They were kind of hopeful businesses, but they weren't, they didn't really have revenue streams and a business model. You look at the bigger companies now, the Amazons, the Apples, even Twitter with Elon Musk and all those different businesses, they're investing billions, billions in AI infrastructure. And they have the money in the bank. It's not like they have to borrow it, it's not equity.
So the amount of money that's going into these, so AI is going to have so much behind it. But I think it goes with robotics and driverless cars, which are basically robots and all those technologies. So they'll all be there.
But I think people are going to notice mostly the agents.
Like, you know, I was, I was listening to a podcast where they were talking about how most Fortune 500 companies, now you can't find an 800 number anymore to call. They don't want you to call because that call costs 3, 4, 5 dollars. And they're generally going to disappoint you because the person has an accent or can't answer your question or you know, so they're better off pushing your website. So you have to more self serve.
When AI agents flip over, which they're starting to, they're going to want everybody to call because the agents will be kind, they'll be smart, they'll be, they'll have a sense of humor. You know, there'll be, you know, a good experience because they can build it that way and they can test it and they can retest it and they can try new things. So like there's a whole world that's going to switch where we actually call. It'll be more like this. Instead of like typing Something your phone, you might have more like an interface like this where you, you just say well I'm trying to book a flight to, you know, San Francisco, so give me this, this and this. And then an hour later you get it, you know, get the results back.
[00:32:29] Kieron Bailey:
I love that. And I was actually the just this morning on the phone to my, one of my insurers and for the whole time I was on hold, the, the messages would rotate. But one that was most consistently is you should probably just go to our website, go to our website and go and ask the question there. You'll probably find the answer much quicker than, than you are going to sit here and get frustrated because you've sat on hold for the last 20 minutes. And then you're right, actually when the person picks up, they're not able to answer my query and give me a resolution that makes sense and makes me happy.
So then I'll start to get a little bit irritated. So you're right. That kind of, that ability to be able to shift people across through to the website and actually potentially have a better experience because I guess an agent would have much more access to much more information than anyone, any person ever could. To be fair, you're relying a lot on kind of lots of training and lots of knowledge of individual agents, actual real life agents on a table telephone to be answer most queries.
[00:33:27] Jim Harris:
And like you were saying, your, your friend that's doing the quick serve and AI agents like think about now when you pull up to like a Starbucks and you order through the drive through and you, you tell whoever's in the, you know, in that role what you want and they repeat it back to you. I mean that's going to be an agent. Like yeah, you know, or even when you go to a restaurant to order it might be a like really friendly agent that just has a great voice and ask you what you want and maybe suggest something else like just like a waiter would at a restaurant. So like, and you know, like the five star places could afford more tech. They're gonna probably have even cooler tech than the two star hotel or restaurant. So like it's gonna be interesting to see what the divisions of technologies is being used. But you know it's gonna have strats where it's gonna go.
You know, Ritz Carlton is not gonna put in bad tech. They're gonna put in, I mean let's, or maybe, maybe they just go old school and they stay with people. You know, that could be another business model too. So.
[00:34:25] Kieron Bailey:
And I think some people that will be the answer. I think that they'll kind of rebel against it and just say, you know what, we're gonna, we're gonna keep it old school. We're gonna keep it human connection.
[00:34:34] Jim Harris:
But Kieran, they may have your ray vine glasses on though, right?
[00:34:38] Kieron Bailey:
There you go.
[00:34:39] Jim Harris:
Make their people smarter. I bet they will. They. You may not see the tech. The, the tech will be right there for them to use and that.
[00:34:46] Kieron Bailey:
Yeah, that's definitely. I mean, if you think about kind of the original Google Glass that had the weird little lens, the kind of frame that kind of popped out over here, which was just odd. If somebody wanted up to me wearing that, I'd feel a little bit weirded out by that. But this is a different experience. And now actually, I mean, I, I bought these three months ago, but in the last two, three weeks, I'm now seeing AI glasses that will have teleprompters built into the lenses. So if you're creating content and actually if you want to make sure that everybody's given the same greetings, the same message, the same consistent approach, well, they've got this information coming in their lens that the general public cannot see.
[00:35:22] Jim Harris:
Yeah. I think the big thing is the phone's going away. Like, I think that's what people start to see. You're not going to have to carry a phone to connect and communicate with people.
It'll take a while, but that's definitely a form factor that probably, probably it will go down in, in usage versus where it is right now.
[00:35:42] Kieron Bailey:
It's really interesting. Phones have gone from being kind of tiny, small, to just been really quite large. I mean, 6.9 inches for a screen now, just so you've got a good screen. And then the next evolution will be that actually they'll just disappear completely. And I think you're absolutely right.
So it's exciting actually, isn't it, when you think about it and you kind of. You're open up your little mind a little bit and you put your Luddite kind of temptations to one side. It's actually really exciting. The opportunity could potentially be delivered.
[00:36:10] Jim Harris:
Yeah, I'm a technology optimist. I choose to be.
[00:36:15] Kieron Bailey:
Optimism is always a choice, Jim, always a choice. And we get the opportunity to make that choice every single day. I love this.
You give me some stuff to think about and how I potentially kind of start to talk about how people could start to implement that effectively. Because like I say, I'm a big obsessive that tech should be a facilitator of Great experience. Whether that experience is your customer experience, your guest experience or your team members experience, it's got to facilitate that experience. And some of the stuff that we've talked about in the last sort of 30 minutes could definitely go a long way towards being able to do that.
Kind of exciting.
Love it. Jim, where can the nice people find you? Where, if anybody's watching and listening, thinking, Jim's dropped. Jim shot loads of gold here and you have.
Where can I go and get in touch with him? Where's the best place?
[00:37:05] Jim Harris:
The company I work for is Western Computer, so it's Western computer dot com. So there's a contact us page on there that you can find me with. So.
[00:37:12] Kieron Bailey:
Perfect. And you're on LinkedIn as well?
[00:37:14] Jim Harris:
Yep, I am on LinkedIn.
[00:37:15] Kieron Bailey:
Are you, are you prolific on LinkedIn? Do you live there?
[00:37:18] Jim Harris:
I spent quite a bit of time there, yeah.
[00:37:20] Kieron Bailey:
It's a happy place now. It's that in itself as well. That's a really interesting one, isn't it? How that's evolved in the last kind of 10, maybe 12 years and certainly since Microsoft bought it, that kind of changed the game a little bit with the way they, that they view it and utilize that from being just when I first got on there, it was literally, if you're looking for a job, that was the only time you ever really went to LinkedIn. Now it's a whole different kettle of fish.
[00:37:43] Jim Harris:
Toroy. Yeah, I definitely agree with you there.
[00:37:46] Kieron Bailey:
Exciting times. Jim, thank you so much. It's been a real pleasure and I'm confident that anybody listening has either certainly kind of reduced some of their fear and discomfort about going away and implementing new tech because I think you've given us some nice simple steps to go and do this effectively and it's been really, really helpful. Thank you so much, mate. Have an amazing day.
[00:38:06] Jim Harris:
You too, Karen. Thank you.
[00:38:07] Kieron Bailey:
Perfect. Thanks so much.
