News Briefs

CloudPay, a provider global payroll and payment solutions, and Instant Financial, a pioneer in responsible earned wage access (EWA), electronic tips, and paycard solutions, have joined forces to expand access to earned wages for employees worldwide. This strategic partnership redefines EWA for organizations with multi-country operations by uniting CloudPay’s unmatched global payroll and payments expertise with Instant’s trusted on-demand pay solutions. The result is a unified, flexible pay solution that empowers employees across borders, positioning companies at the forefront of financial wellness support for workforces globally.

By combining CloudPay’s global payroll infrastructure with Instant Financial’s on-demand pay services, the partnership equips companies with U.S. roots—and others globally—with the ability to offer employees access to their earned wages wherever they are, whenever they need it. As EWA gains traction globally, this collaboration places CloudPay and Instant Financial ahead of the curve, meeting the growing demand for progressive pay options that enhance employee financial wellness and boost talent acquisition and retention worldwide.

This partnership also responds to the demand for flexible pay solutions, providing employees with enhanced financial wellness options and giving organizations a competitive edge in attracting and retaining talent. By offering immediate access to earned wages, CloudPay and Instant Financial are empowering employees with greater financial control, by reducing dependence on costly credit whilst promoting wellbeing on a global scale.

“At CloudPay, we recognize the importance of meeting employees’ needs for timely and accessible pay, especially in a globalized work environment,” said Timo Weber, Chief Strategy Officer at CloudPay. “Our partnership with Instant Financial combines our strengths in global payroll with Instant’s trusted on-demand pay solutions, delivering a seamless, flexible pay experience that meets the financial wellness goals of companies with diverse, international workforces.”

Tal Clark, CEO at Instant Financial added, ”Our partnership with CloudPay is very exciting as it brings earned wage access to businesses and employees everywhere. By combining our innovative pay solutions with CloudPay’s global payroll capabilities, we’re meeting the global needs of our enterprise clients while making financial wellness more accessible than ever.”

Together, CloudPay and Instant Financial exemplify a commitment to advancing financial wellness across borders, uniting two trusted brands to redefine the payroll experience and expand on-demand pay worldwide. As EWA rapidly evolves from a U.S.-centric benefit to a globally valued solution, this alliance positions both companies at the forefront of payroll innovation and workforce wellbeing.

Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux, the nationally renowned restaurant and sports bar, will be relaunching its guest engagement platform with Paytronix Loyalty. The new Walk-On’s Rewards loyalty program is being deployed to help the brand support its franchisee community as it seeks to increase growth in the coming years.

Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux selected Paytronix as the loyalty program best suited to round out its approach to guest engagement, particularly for its best-in-class platform. Paytronix will support the brand’s inherent belief in Southern hospitality while also growing loyalty sales to double digits across all locations.

Related: 82% of customers want to receive discounts as a benefit of their loyalty program membership, according to HT's 2024 Customer Engagement Technology Study 

“We want to better establish the foundation of our brand through loyalty, and Paytronix is the perfect fit to support our fast-growing franchisee community,” said Mark Foulds, Vice President of Digital Media and Consumer Engagement at Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux. “Its rich feature set includes the data-driven measurement and reporting necessary to give our franchisees greater visibility into how our loyalty program is performing. It’s a one-stop shop for SMS push and pull marketing campaigns.”

Designed to scale to the needs of the brand, the Paytronix loyalty program will enable Walk-On’s franchisees to capture guest data, make data-driven decisions and optimize their programs using real-time ROI analysis and reports. All while delivering the rewards and experiences that lead to more visits, higher spend per visit, and an increase in the value of each customer.

“Our franchisees are asking for a loyalty platform with more personalization that will help them build deeper relationships with their guests,” said Mike Lester, CEO of Walking Tall Brands and a member of the Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux Franchise Advisory Council. “Through enabling greater personalization via segmentation, targeting, and offers based on guest transactions, Paytronix Loyalty will provide both convenience and access to the data and information necessary to learn what our guest journey is and how to increase their visit frequency.”

“Paytronix is incredibly pleased to play a key role in Walk On’s growth plans,” said Paytronix Chief Customer Officer, Andrea Mulligan. “We’ll be working closely with their franchisees and marketers to get the best of their loyalty program. Walk On’s is a highly respected institution in the South, and the greater hospitality industry. We look forward to collaborating and finding new ways to leverage their belief in Southern hospitality to create value for their customers and new growth opportunities for their franchisees.”

Stable Kernel, a leading digital transformation company empowering innovative large-scale enterprises with customer insights, data, AI, and software engineering, has officially launched its Data & AI Practice. Led by Ben Manning, Ph.D., the practice focuses on driving business transformation through innovative artificial intelligence and data solutions, including the groundbreaking Agentic AI.

Agentic AI marks a significant advancement in artificial intelligence. Unlike traditional AI that relies on analytics, Agentic AI introduces autonomous agents capable of decision-making, collaboration, and adaptation without constant human oversight. This evolution drives unmatched efficiency, personalization, and innovation across industries.

"Stable Kernel has always been committed to providing transformative solutions that help businesses thrive," said Jason Russell, Co-founder and CEO. "Our Data & AI Practice with Agentic AI, is reshaping how enterprises leverage technology. Autonomous, intuitive systems are the future of business."

The Power of Agentic AI

Stable Kernel's commitment to pushing technological boundaries is evident in the tangible benefits businesses are experiencing with Agentic AI. Key industries such as foodservice, retail, construction, and healthcare are already realizing its transformative potential, including:

• Operational Excellence: Streamlined workflows like inventory management and supply chain optimization, leading to faster, more productive operations.
• Personalized Experiences: Hyper-personalized recommendations and real-time support to enhance customer engagement.
• Proactive Decision-Making: Predictive insights to drive smarter, faster decision-making.
• Seamless Collaboration: Improved human-digital collaboration for better resource allocation and project management.
  
  
  
   

Success Stories

A leading quick-service restaurant (QSR) used Stable Kernel's centralized data lakehouse and AI-powered analytics to achieve:

• 80% faster time to market, reducing promotion rollout from 3 weeks to 3 days, while boosting customer reach, online orders, and catering revenue—transforming their operations.
• The solutions streamlined digital ordering, automated delivery systems, and enhanced customer engagement, driving scalable growth across thousands of locations.

For a video-on-demand (VoD) platform, Stable Kernel unified data architecture and implemented predictive analytics to:

Forecast peak demand and optimize content recommendations
Scale operations to meet subscriber growth
Develop a roadmap for sustained innovation
These solutions helped the VoD provider remain competitive in a fast-changing market, demonstrating Stable Kernel's ability to address unique challenges.

"Businesses need solutions that don't just analyze data but act on it autonomously," said Manning. "With Agentic AI, we're enabling organizations to meet evolving demands by driving operational efficiency, enhancing customer experiences, and fostering innovation. This practice is a game-changer for our clients."

For information on Stable Kernel's Data & AI Practice with Agentic AI, visit www.stablekernel.com.
 

Guestline, an Access Company, released figures highlighting the benefits of online bookings and check-ins to help meet guest demand. The data indicates Guestline's GuestStay self-service technology to be a revenue generator for hoteliers with 2.4 million self-service travelers checking in and purchasing additional services.

Guest self-service has also given hotel teams back 6,000 hours of labor time and, together with Guestline's Direct Booking Manager, captures first party data for hotels to improve their communications with guests.

In 2024, Guestline recorded a staggering 2.3 million online check-ins completed via GuestStay. An additional 120,000 self service check-ins through on-property kiosks generated incremental revenue of 2.6%  as guests purchased additional services such as breakfast - increasing hotel revenue beyond the room booking.

The impact of GuestStay technology and kiosks also benefits the hotel's team. 72,000 guests opted for autonomous checkouts receiving automated invoices without staff intervention. Each digital interaction not only boosted staff efficiency but also elevated guest satisfaction by eliminating traditional bottlenecks especially at peak times.

Eric Neumann, Managing Director of Classik Hotels Berlin, "Guestline has helped us gain more time. I have more time for my team, and my team has more time to offer our guests excellent service and an enjoyable stay – and that's the most important thing."

In addition, GuestStay’s digital registration cards captured 800,000 personal email addresses directly for hotels, converting third-party bookings into valuable first-party data. This provides hotels with valuable data to build stronger guest relationships and drive loyalty through targeted communications.

The Direct Booking Manager (DBM) booking engine secured 1.2 million bookings in 12 months, from 2023 - 2024, with 6.7% facilitated through seamless integration with Google Connector, further optimizing revenue streams for hoteliers.

These figures highlight how adopting self-service touchpoints not only improves the guest experience through convenience but also assists operational efficiencies. By automating routine tasks to eradicate the zombie culture and creating new revenue opportunities, hotels can refocus their efforts on creating memorable guest experiences.

“With almost 50% of travelers preferring to use tech rather than the reception desk and guest expectations on the rise self-service technology is no longer a luxury but a necessity for forward-thinking hotels,” said Chris Jones, Senior Product Manager, Guestline. “By integrating digital tools like GuestStay and Direct Booking Manager properties can improve guest engagement, reduce reliance on manual processes freeing up time to provide a better guest experience and drive meaningful growth.”

Alorica Inc., a digitally-engineered, tech-enabled global CX leader, identified the top three leading missteps brands made with their CX strategies in 2024—nonstrategic AI, lack of localized, multilingual support, and relying on legacy customer service practices. With customer loyalty both fragile and volatile within the U.S. market across every industry—more than 1 in 3 U.S. consumers are not loyal to brands—these 2024 CX fails serve as a reminder to companies on what to avoid and what is required to maintain customer satisfaction.

 Top 2024 CX Fails:

• Nonstrategic AI—Between 2023 and 2024, global AI readiness in the enterprise declined; today, only 13% of companies are fully ready to capture AI’s potential. While AI is reshaping the industry, the brands that deployed it without a strategy and the harmonization of human support, failed to make a real, tangible impact and lost out financially in those investments.
• Missing Multilingual CX—29% of businesses lose customers due to the lack of multilingual support, while 70% of consumers say they feel more loyal to brands that communicate in their native language. Localized, multilingual CX that takes cultural nuances into consideration, builds trust as consumers feel heard and valued. Brands that couldn’t deliver a multilingual customer experience lost the increasingly global race for customers.
• Legacy Customer Service—Businesses can no longer thrive on face-to-face communications. Those that shied away from integrating new technologies, data and analytics lacked in delivering exceptional service. For example, 51% of organizations said chatbots reduce customer call time—big savings that add to the bottom line and brand satisfaction.

“Brands are under constant pressure to deliver memorable and satisfying customer experiences, and when they don’t, their reputation and bottom line are at risk,” stated Mike Clifton, Co-CEO, Alorica. “In 2024, AI-powered solutions demonstrated incredible capabilities to personalize CX, but the over reliance on tech without thoughtful implementation led to misguided automation, and ultimately, generic, one-size-fits all responses with no contextual awareness. Brands that don’t take a step back to analyze these detrimental mistakes will not adapt to the emerging tech and future, and they will be left behind.”

Ahead of 2025, the CX landscape is more competitive than ever with brands vying to win market share by meeting increasing consumer expectations. The only way to stand out is by perfecting convenience, speed, personalization and empathy—key pillars of customer trust and loyalty. By leveraging data and analytics, brands can build bespoke experiences that create meaningful connections. In 2025, conversational AI will take off. A type of AI that simulates human conversation across a wide range of tools like chatbots and virtual agents, conversational AI will redefine the standard for CX excellence not only with measurable outcomes, but also by creating more meaningful, empathetic and memorable customer journeys.

“Businesses that don’t have an AI or multilingual strategy for the upcoming year should pause and reassess their approach,” said Max Schwendner, Co-CEO, Alorica. “If they don’t consider these crucial CX fails, they are vulnerable to a slew of pitfalls, including missing customer insights, inconsistent omnichannel experiences, neglecting accessibility needs, over-reliance on outdated tools and poor employee training, which leads to turnover.”