News Summary

• Nicolas Maynard is Senior Vice President, Data Science & AI at Accor.
• He spent years building AI products at Amazon, including Alexa, before taking on a different scale problem.
• Accor splits AI ownership in two so tools can scale across European markets and brands while fitting the reality of each hotel.
• Maynard: Scaling AI isn’t just a technology deployment; it’s a cultural transformation.
• The real challenge was not convincing people to use AI, but ensuring we could support the demand responsibly and at scale.