Teamwork, fun, and innovation sum up this year’s virtual two-day hackathon event at TableCheck held last August 31–September 1. A theme centered around Artificial Intelligence (AI) brought together employees from IT, product, sales, etc. to develop AI solutions and enhance TableCheck’s existing products and client experiences, potentially marking what will be a transformative path for the company in its future adoption of AI.

Ten teams competed in this two-day challenge with CTO Johnny Shields, Alexander Nicholson, Engineering Manager and Head of SRE, and Aude Moras, Head of Product, overseeing the summer hackathon. The hackathon is an annual event held by TableCheck as part of its commitment to innovation, in alignment with TableCheck’s IHIBON core values. The event also underscores TableCheck’s dedication to nurturing creativity in the company.

The winning teams

Team Salt Bae led by Engineering Manager Daniel Lizik won the "Most Fun Project" and "Best Project Overall'. The team created a voice recognition AI assistant to help merchants create reservations in the TableCheck platform within a matter of minutes. With labor shortage still a major concern for restaurants, the team addressed these challenges by using voice-to-text technology to help manage reservations and optimize restaurant operations.

Meanwhile, Team Divine Pizza of the Heavens, led by Engineering Manager Simeon Cheeseman, won "Biggest Business Impact". The team used AI to improve the global search functionality of TableCheck’s V4 Settings – a platform used by TableCheck clients to manage their daily operations. The team introduced an AI-assisted Search Setting, which seamlessly aligns user queries with the appropriate sections of the platform, facilitating quick and precise access to the information they seek and helping merchants configure faster. This not only enhances user experience but also significantly improves efficiency and streamlines the overall user journey.

For its EDM marketing automation project, a special prize went out to Team G.Ramsay’s Lamb Sauce for "Best Use of AI". Led by Shunsuke Hosaka, who is not from IT but works from the President's Office, the team leveraged AI to help restaurateurs create automatic marketing campaigns in just one click by using existing customer data while also being able to segment a target audience.

The teams that won prizes were made up of cross-functional team members from other groups outside of IT, illustrating how TableCheck fosters cross-collaboration within the organization.

While these hackathon projects are not yet implemented on real products, they serve as creative explorations of what is possible and their potential real-world applications for TableCheck.

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Lessons learned and the endless possibilities with AI

Hackathons offer excellent grounds for employees to learn about new technologies and collaborate with each other. More importantly, these events provide an effective platform for TableCheck to address existing challenges in the hospitality industry while also bridging the gap between the Japanese team and the global team at TableCheck.

"It was a BIG success," says Johnny, CTO of TableCheck. "For me, the KPI is how much people learned, and that was amazing. It created a positive engagement overall. It's more fun to work in a company where you learn new things."

“As with past year Hackathons, several of these ideas may be incorporated into our future products in some form. AI has opened the floodgates of innovation and TableCheck will be using it to deliver the best to our hospitality clients,” he adds.

TableCheck has more than 8,000 clients worldwide which include Michelin-starred restaurants, top Hotel F&B, and Enterprise F&B brands.