Brandon Wood, senior account executive at Corrigo, a tech-focused division of JLL, is set to attend Hotec Operations, an annual conference presented by Questex, the parent company of Hotel Management. At the conference—scheduled this year for June 11-14 at the PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.—buyers meet one-on-one with hospitality-focused suppliers to learn about new products and services and to keep up to date on emerging trends.
Ahead of the event, Wood shared his insights on artificial intelligence and how technology is poised to help management companies.
1. How has your segment of the industry changed over the past year?
As with every industry, the proliferation of AI technology, and specifically large language models, has had an impact. While we already had machine-learning, prescriptive-business intelligence, we have begun to invest significant R&D dollars in building large language models (LLM) as a result. Outside of AI, we have also seen a push towards better compliance in "critical environments" and better market acceptance of technology like IoT to collect environmental/condition-based asset data, and "predict" failure.
2. Can you share some ways you and your company have adapted to these changes?
While we may be first-to-market with an AI tool, our goal is to build something that facility managers can actually use, rather than just the latest shiny object. We project that by early next year we will have a fully built LLM built into Corrigo to help facility managers get instant analytics on any data within the platform, with a simple chat prompt. In terms of critical environments—what we define as any physical space with intricate, heavily regulated procedures—we've built a feature set to support digital rounds, inspections, incident management, MOP/SOPs, and advanced work order management with multilayer approvals. To address compliance and environmental data capture, we've built a slew of integrations with smart-building technology, within and outside of JLL. We've also built an integration with an EPA-compliant refrigerant tracking software that will be the first of its kind in the market, and help hotels stay compliant with EPA 608 and the AIM act.
3. What are some trends you think will have staying power beyond 2024?
AI, and specifically LLMs, are without question here to stay. As the world of data and insights becomes as simple as "asking a question" and getting a full, contextual answer, we also predict that facility managers will turn their sights toward more elaborate data capture—not just smart buildings, but building out asset libraries with the help of their technology providers. We are continually moving from a world of day-to-day, reactive, break-fix minutiae, to more preventive and predictive facilities management, and it's about to get a lot easier to execute.
4. What is the biggest challenge you have overcome over the past year?
Macroeconomic headwinds have affected every global business and even JLL is not completely immune. Within the Corrigo world, we've had to get more scrappy in growing the business, in an environment of high interest rates and reduced budgets. With that said, the results have never been better. Our customer NPS and CSAT is at an all-time high, and we continue to grow at a steady clip year over year.
5. How have you incorporated environmental, social and governance efforts into your hospitality operations?
We are backed by JLL's comprehensive sustainability and smart building programs, which build proprietary software and offers every service imaginable to promote compliance. Corrigo seamlessly integrates with all sustainability and smart building software, at JLL, which is a huge advantage for customers in that a robust end-to-end suite of software to track refrigerant compliance, carbon output, and capture unlimited facility data across the portfolio can be delivered by one single provider. That means a single source of truth and a single point of accountability.
6. What are you most excited about accomplishing over the next year?
We have never had a more active product launch and go-to-market team, and it's all fueled by a close partnership with our customer advisory board. We've gotten increasingly ambitious over the years and 2025 should be the biggest year yet for Corrigo. All the while, we've been able to leverage 25 years in market to hone our system architecture to offer the absolute best-in-class data security and an industry best 99.98 percent system uptime. Whether it's predictive maintenance, critical environment management, AI and machine-learning or just getting better at the core of what we do—work order, asset and vendor management—we have a lot to look forward to.
7. What is the value of meeting hospitality buyers one on one?
We want to learn what the most pressing challenges are for hospitality real estate and facility teams in 2025. Where are buyers looking to improve and become more efficient, compliant and strategic in 2025? Moreover, how are buyers currently investing in technology and how might they be planning to leverage new tech in the coming year?
Hotec Operations will take place June 11-14 at the PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Applications are open for buyers and suppliers.