Strawberry’s Case for Fixing the Data Before the Model: Why Clean Architecture is the Foundation of AI Success in Hospitality.

In the winter of 2021, while the global hospitality industry was still grappling with the volatile shifts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Strawberry—then known as Nordic Choice Hotels—faced a digital existential crisis. A sophisticated ransomware attack, orchestrated by the notorious Russian-linked cybercriminal group Conti, infiltrated the company’s infrastructure, encrypting servers and paralyzing the majority of its operational systems across more than 200 properties. For most multi-national corporations, such a breach would result in weeks of downtime and catastrophic data loss. Yet, Strawberry managed to restore its core operations within just four days. This recovery was not fueled by a massive compliance manual or a pre-set bureaucratic protocol, but by a workforce that understood the underlying architecture of their business and possessed the technical literacy to prioritize what truly mattered.

Kari Anna Fiskvik, the Chief Digital and Technology Officer (CDTO) at Strawberry, views that crisis as a defining moment that shaped the company’s current approach to Artificial Intelligence. As the travel industry rushes to integrate Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative tools into every facet of the guest journey, Fiskvik is sounding a clarion call for a return to basics: data hygiene and structural integrity. Speaking ahead of her appearance at the Skift Data + AI Summit Europe, scheduled for October 6, 2026, at Mastercard London, Fiskvik emphasizes that the industry’s obsession with the "model" is misplaced if the "plumbing" remains broken.

The central thesis of Fiskvik’s philosophy is that AI acts as a force multiplier. In a vacuum, a force multiplier is neutral; its value is determined entirely by the substance it is multiplying. When applied to clean, structured, and real-time guest data, AI yields exponential improvements in decision-making, personalization, and operational speed. However, when applied to "chaos"—the fragmented records, disconnected legacy systems, and inconsistent data silos that plague the hospitality sector—AI simply produces "faster chaos." For Fiskvik, the goal is not merely to have AI, but to ensure the data architecture allows information to move freely and accurately between systems, creating a unified view of the guest.

The hospitality industry is historically burdened by "technical debt." A single guest journey often touches a dozen different platforms: a Global Distribution System (GDS), an Online Travel Agency (OTA) like Booking.com, a Central Reservation System (CRS), a Property Management System (PMS), and various Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools. When these systems do not communicate, the guest’s history becomes a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces. One department might know a guest prefers a high floor, while another knows they have a nut allergy, but if the AI cannot synthesize this into a single identity, the resulting "personalized" service will be disjointed. Fiskvik argues that a broken guest journey is almost always an infrastructure problem wearing a digital costume.

This perspective challenges the current hype cycle surrounding proprietary AI models. Many travel tech vendors promise that their specific algorithm will revolutionize a hotel’s bottom line. Fiskvik remains skeptical, noting that the models themselves are rapidly becoming a commodity. Whether a company uses OpenAI’s GPT-4, Google’s Gemini, or an open-source Llama variant, the differentiating factor will not be the engine, but the fuel. "Your data, and the plumbing underneath it, are not a commodity," Fiskvik asserts. She points to the rise of "agentic" search—where AI agents perform tasks on behalf of users—as a primary example. Google’s AI Mode, which allows users to search for and compare hotels directly through a conversational interface, relies on the quality of the structured data provided by the hotel. Properties with messy or incomplete data feeds will simply vanish from the digital conversation, regardless of how luxurious their physical rooms may be.

The conversation around AI in hospitality also necessitates a discussion on the "human touch," a core tenet of the Strawberry philosophy. The group, owned by Norwegian billionaire Petter Stordalen, operates under a "People, Planet, Profit" mandate. Fiskvik is quick to dispel the misconception that more AI automatically equates to a better guest experience. While the booking process, check-in, and administrative tasks can and should be digitized to remove friction, the core of hospitality remains a physical, human-to-human interaction. Strawberry’s approach is to use technology to empower staff, not to replace them with cold automation.

This human-centric approach extends to the company’s labor strategy. One of the most significant risks posed by generative AI is the potential displacement of entry-level or "junior" roles—the very positions that serve as the training ground for the next generation of industry leaders. "Young people deserve to work, and they have to start and learn somewhere," Fiskvik says. Strawberry is actively working on a strategy that leverages AI for efficiency while safeguarding the professional development of its human workforce. The goal is to automate the mundane to allow employees to focus on high-value guest interactions that require empathy, context, and judgment—traits that AI, for all its processing power, still lacks.

The regulatory landscape in Europe presents another layer of complexity. With the implementation of the EU AI Act, companies are facing increased pressure to label AI-generated content and perform rigorous risk assessments. While Fiskvik acknowledges that new technology needs rules to protect society from threats like prompt injections and data breaches, she warns against the "safety theater" of excessive paperwork. Reflecting on the 2021 Conti attack, she notes that a "compliance binder" did not save the company; human ingenuity did. She urges regulators to focus on whether a rule actually improves security and outcomes rather than whether it is merely well-documented.

Looking toward the future of travel operations, Fiskvik identifies "conversion" as the primary battlefield for AI. The industry is moving away from static search results toward "bookable moments." At Villa Copenhagen, one of Strawberry’s flagship luxury properties, an AI concierge named "Vivi" is already demonstrating this shift. Unlike traditional chatbots that provide generic answers, Vivi can process complex queries—such as a request for a specific room type during a specific week—and return actual, bookable pricing and packages in seconds. This eliminates the "contact us for availability" friction that often leads to abandoned bookings.

Furthermore, the rise of agentic AI is set to reshape the competitive landscape. As AI agents begin to handle the searching, comparing, and assembling of itineraries, the traditional advertising models used by OTAs and hotel brands will be upended. Meta’s launch of its travel app and Google’s integration of loyalty programs into AI search suggest a future where digital discoverability is gatekept by those who can best feed the algorithms. This trend is particularly threatening to independent hotels and smaller groups that may lack the resources to maintain sophisticated data architectures.

As the industry prepares for the Skift Data + AI Summit Europe, the message from Strawberry is clear: the race for AI supremacy is actually a race for data excellence. The organizations that thrive will not be those with the flashiest front-end tools, but those that have spent the time "fixing the pipes." For Kari Anna Fiskvik and Strawberry, the 2021 ransomware attack was a painful but valuable lesson in resilience and the importance of technical foundations. As they navigate the next industrial revolution, they do so with the understanding that while AI can provide the speed, only clean data and human context can provide the direction.

Fiskvik’s insights will be a cornerstone of the London summit, where she will be joined by other industry heavyweights, including Bryan Batista of Skyscanner and Benjamin Cany of Amadeus. Together, these leaders will dissect the evolving relationship between technology and travel, but Fiskvik’s focus will remain steadfast on the "underneath." In her view, the most successful AI strategy is one that begins long before a single line of code is written—it begins with the commitment to treat data as the company’s most valuable, and most fragile, asset. By prioritizing architecture over the model, Strawberry is not just preparing for the next two years of AI trends; it is building a defensible, human-centric future for hospitality in a digital-first world.