Kurien Jacob

Partner
Highgate Technology Ventures

2026 Phocuswright Conference speaker

Kurien Jacob Partner
Kurien spearheads HTV (Highgate Tech Ventures) as Managing Director and Partner. HTV is a strategic value-added Travel Technology investment firm that makes venture and growth equity investments.

Prior to launching HTV, Kurien was Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at Highgate Hotels, a universally recognized hospitality industry leader today. During his tenure as CRO, he built Highgate’s revenue management team, platform and distribution capabilities whilst innovating with technologies that supported the core business.

Kurien serves on the Board of several software companies in the travel and hospitality ecosystem. These include OTA Insights – a state of art data & intelligence platform, LodgIQ – an innovative AI based pricing and revenue intelligence solution, and Cendyn – an innovator in CRS, Distribution, CRM and Ecommerce technology. He is also on the board of HostnFly – a tech enabled player in the short-term rental space in France, Seven Rooms – a restaurant reservations and marketing automation company, and Hotel Trader – A fully automated B2B Distribution, payments and contracting platform. Kurien actively participates in Board meetings and/or strategic meetings of various other portfolio companies namely Wheelhouse, Noise Aware, Safely, Marqii and Uplift. He is actively involved in the full-scale commercialization and adoption of HTV Portfolio technology companies across the industry.

Sessions

Tuesday, November 17, 2026
2:15 PM – 3:00 PM EST

Hospitality AI: The Great Push and Pull

AI is transforming hospitality, but the opportunity looks different depending on where you sit. Global brands want scale and control. Owners want financial returns. Operators want productivity and execution. Independent and boutique hotels want sophisticated capabilities without enterprise-level complexity. Established technology companies are reinventing their platforms, while AI-native innovators are challenging traditional software categories and operating models. All of them face the same test on property: whether AI can give frontline teams the real-time guest context to deliver a higher level of hospitality.Central question: How will AI reshape the way hotels are managed, operated, marketed, distributed, monetized and experienced, and who will control and capture the value?This is an interactive industry discussion, not a sequence of product demonstrations. Industry leaders from different stakeholder groups each speak for five minutes, unplugged with no slides, followed by open discussion and debate to explore opportunities, conflicts and practical solutions.

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