18 February 2025
Brent Spicer (Spice), CEO & Co-Founder
AI is everywhere in the news right now, and it’s hard to ignore. If you’re like me, you’ve probably seen the buzz about how AI is shaping industries and wondered: what does this mean for retail and hospitality businesses like ours? Let’s break it down.
In 2024, AI took center stage in the tech world. Nvidia, a major AI chip manufacturer, saw its market value shoot up from $1.2 trillion at the end of 2023 to $3.28 trillion by the end of 2024. That’s an astronomical increase, fueled by the booming demand for AI-powered technologies. At the same time, U.S. President Donald Trump (on his first full day in office) announced a $500 billion private-sector investment into AI infrastructure. But the market isn’t just moving in one direction—when a Chinese startup claimed to have built a ChatGPT rival for less than $6 million, panic set in, Nasdaq dropped 2.3%, and Nvidia lost $589 billion in a single day, the biggest one-day loss in U.S. stock market history.
The AI arms race is real. Meta (Facebook) has committed over $65 billion this year to AI, while Microsoft is continuing its $80 billion annual spend on Azure AI infrastructure. Even in the startup world, AI is dominating—AI startups now account for 70% of B2B Series A funding rounds and receive 40% higher valuations than non-AI startups.
This all sounds massive, but what does it mean for your business? More importantly, how can we, as retail and hospitality entrepreneurs, actually use AI to our advantage?
I see two major narratives about AI: one side claims it’s going to solve all our problems, while the other warns it will destroy jobs and industries. Personally, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle:
AI will help us work smarter and faster. Just like the internet changed how we do business, AI will help automate tedious tasks, making us more productive and allowing us to focus on what really matters.
AI won’t replace human connection. Retail and hospitality thrive on personal interactions. When COVID hit, many thought physical stores and restaurants were done for—but as soon as lockdowns ended, people rushed back. Why? Because human experiences matter. AI will enhance our businesses, not replace them.
You don’t need to be a tech expert to leverage AI. Your technology providers (like Marsello) are already integrating AI into their platforms to make your life easier. Here’s how AI is actually useful for small and medium-sized retailers and hospitality businesses:
Smarter, More Profitable Marketing (Without the Guesswork)
AI can analyze your sales data and predict what your customers are likely to buy next.
It can automatically create personalized marketing campaigns—email, SMS, push notifications—targeted at specific customers.
Instead of hoping a discount or promo will work, AI helps you send the right offer to the right person at the right time.
Faster, More Effective Decision-Making
Ever find yourself staring at a product you have too much of, wondering how to move it fast? AI can help by:
Finding customers who are most likely to buy it.
Determining the best way to reach them (email, SMS, etc.).
Creating a campaign and presenting it to you for approval—no manual work required.
This means you can act quickly, get results faster, and avoid overstocked inventory problems.
Automated, Data-Driven Marketing That Keeps Improving
AI doesn’t just launch campaigns—it learns from them.
It tracks what works, what doesn’t, and continuously tweaks future campaigns for better performance.
The more you use it, the better it gets at driving real revenue growth.
I was talking with Lance Walker about this recently. Lance used to run what was at the time New Zealand’s largest loyalty programme, and was also involved in setting up their Customer Insights function. He had this to say:
“We’ve always known that analysing data to generate actionable sales and marketing insights is one of the key benefits of a loyalty programme. The challenge has been how to do that economically at scale. In the past we had to rely on teams of highly skilled analysts, which really wasn’t efficient or sustainable. The cost was too high and the output was constrained by the size of the team.
"But with AI the door to analytics at scale has been opened. It provides us with the opportunity to undertake analytics and gain insights for retailers in real-time time, giving them a competitive edge that was previously only available to much larger businesses.”
At Marsello, we’re building AI-driven tools to save you time, increase sales, and boost profitability. Our vision? A world where AI helps you turn insights into instant action.
Imagine logging into Marsello and seeing this:
"You’re overstocked on this product. I’ve identified a segment of customers most likely to buy it. Some prefer email, others SMS—I’ve created campaigns for both. Here’s how they look. Approve them, or tweak them to your liking."
That’s where we’re headed. AI-powered marketing that’s fast, effective, and makes you money.
We’re rolling out some game-changing AI updates soon, and I’d love your input. How do you see AI helping your retail or hospitality business? What challenges do you want AI to solve? Drop a comment below, and let’s chat about how we can make AI work for you!
Spice is CEO and Co-Founder of Marsello, omnichannel loyalty solutions for brands. He is a globally-experienced business leader having worked in a range of roles internationally. In his spare time, he helps early stage founders with their businesses and competes in multi-sport endurance events.