Future Hospitality Challenge explored how AI and sustainability reshape hotel services

How can hospitality services evolve in a future shaped by artificial intelligence, digitalization and the green transition? These questions were at the centre of the Future Hospitality Challenge, an innovation sprint that brought together multidisciplinary teams and leading companies to design next-generation hospitality solutions.

Over one intensive design sprint week, five teams developed scalable service concepts connecting hospitality services, local businesses and sustainable technologies to meet changing guest expectations and the growing demand for more sustainable physical spaces.

Co-creating future hospitality solutions with industry partners

The challenge was provided in collaboration with industry partners ABB, Samsung, Skanska, Omena Hotels and Elo, who helped shape the challenge framework and took part in evaluating the solutions. Throughout the week, teams worked closely with mentors and company representatives, combining technological, service design and sustainability perspectives.

At the heart of the challenge was Metropolia SmartLab, a smart home platform developed in collaboration between Metropolia, Skanska and ABB. The teams were invited to imagine and explore:

• What does the future of hospitality in physical spaces look like?
• What kinds of hotel and hospitality innovations could emerge in a highly digitalized world?
• How can AI and digitalization support greener and more sustainable environments?

“Designing innovation challenges together with partners is particularly rewarding, as it allows us to identify real underlying needs and frame challenges that lead to meaningful solutions. This collaborative approach creates a strong foundation for concepts that can be applied in real working-life contexts”, says Anna-Stina Tähkävuori, Project Manager at Metropolia.

One of the partners and jury members was ABB, a long-standing working life partner of Metropolia.

“The Future Hospitality Challenge was a pleasant surprise. This was new to me as well: the competition opened up entirely new perspectives on how collaboration and fresh ideas can help build smarter, more user-centric accommodation spaces, hotels and buildings. From ABB’s perspective, it was inspiring to see how naturally the competition teams leveraged energy efficiency, automation, sustainable technology and artificial intelligence. These are exactly the areas we want to advance together with our partners” emphasized Segment Manager Hospitality Oskar Järnefelt from ABB.

From ideas to impact

The final pitches took place at the end of the sprint, with each team presenting its solution to a jury of industry and innovation experts. The concepts were evaluated based on their impact, innovativeness and creativity, sustainability and scalability, as well as the clarity and feasibility of the proposed solution.

The challenge was won by aiCon – the Future Hotel Concierge, an AI-powered virtual concierge designed to enhance the guest experience by integrating data, staff and hotel operations into a seamless, personalized service journey from booking to stay. The solution is applicable across different hotel types and categories.

“This challenge was an intense and rewarding journey—learning to work with AI, building something meaningful under pressure, and exchanging ideas on innovation with mentors, judges, and fellow teams. Experiences like this only happen with great organization and truly multi-faceted support. It was inspiring to see industry and academia come together at Metropolia. Let’s do more of this” says Yan Peng from the winning team.

As part of the prize, the winning team received tickets to Slush and the opportunity to continue collaboration with industry partners in further developing the concept.

“What makes challenges like this particularly valuable is the depth of collaboration. When companies, students and experts work side by side around a shared challenge, innovation becomes a mutual learning process. This is exactly the kind of collaboration we want to continue strengthening at Metropolia” says Antero Vesterinen, Innovation Director at Metropolia.

More information

Anna-Stina Tähkävuori
Project Manager, Metropolia University of Applied Sciences
firstname.lastname [at] metropolia.fi (firstname[dot]lastname[at]metropolia[dot]fi)