AI Innovator

Fora named to Forbes 2026 Accessibility 200. The modern travel agency. Fora, the modern travel agency, has been recognized on the Forbes Accessibility 200 list for 2026. The accolade honors the biggest innovators pushing accessibility forward across a broad range of fields, including travel, communication, education, mobility, and software. "At Fora, we view accessibility as hospitality that works in real life for real travelers," says Karen Morales, accessibility program lead at Fora and Fora X Advisor. "That means setting a new standard within the industry and making sure our advisors know how to shape trips so their clients' needs are met proactively, with dignity and warmth." In 2024, Fora launched an Accessible Travel Program with the belief that every traveler deserves access to expert, thoughtful guidance - and that the travel industry had a massive gap Fora could help fill. At its core, Fora's commitment to accessibility is about more than business priorities. It stems from seeing firsthand how inclusion and adaptability change the travel experience for everyone, including their own families. "My daughter has a neuromuscular disability," shares Jake Peters, Fora co-founder, chief product and technology officer. "When we travel as a family, there's a lot more to consider - stairs, room layouts, food options. Planning ahead is critical to making the trip work for us as a family. Accessible travel, and how we support our advisors in creating great experiences for all travelers, is deeply personal to me. Part of our technology mission and roadmap is making it easier for suppliers to showcase what they offer, easier for advisors to find the right fit, and easier for clients to be met with hospitality that works for them." To accomplish that goal, Fora built the infrastructure to equip their network of 15,000+ advisors with the knowledge and tools needed to personalize seamless travel experiences from start to finish. Every advisor receives access to a comprehensive, 16-lesson training curriculum that spans mobility, food allergies, hearing and vision differences, invisible illness, neurodivergent and sensory-sensitive travelers, service animals, and accessibility on flights and cruises. Fora Advisors are actively engaged in accessibility-focused planning, supported by weekly office hours with Fora specialists who can guide real-time problem-solving. In 2025, the program generated $75 million in accessibility-related travel bookings, driving direct engagement from major luxury hospitality brands and measurable property-level change. They also serve as industry-facing advocates, working with hotels on beach wheelchair purchases, improved renovation designs, creating greater public awareness of services like autism-friendly kids clubs, and other initiatives. Suppliers who were already doing the work have seen increased revenue because they have informed, motivated intermediaries helping them make key decisions and articulate exactly what they are doing to meet the accessibility needs of their guests. Fora is working to bring more accessible supplier information into its portal and AI assistants to further help advisors make informed decisions. Additionally, Fora's program has created new opportunities for caregivers, medical professionals, and parents to build flexible advisory businesses rooted in lived experience, serving clients who trust that expertise. This benefits both sides of the equation: More travelers can access meaningful travel experiences around the world, and more people can establish impactful careers in a growing field. About Fora Fora is the modern travel agency, powering a new generation of travel entrepreneurs. Fora's AI-enabled platform provides advisors with the tools, training, and community to grow their businesses, and connects travelers to insider trip planning and VIP perks worldwide. Fora advisors have booked more than $2.5 billion in travel across more than 180 countries. Fora is headquartered in New York City and backed by Thrive Capital, Insight Partners, Forerunner Ventures, and Heartcore Capital. Learn more at foratravel.com. Fora. Fora is the modern travel agency. Fora pair tech with expertise to reimagine what travel can look like. Learn more about how to join Fora or book with Fora.

AI in action: lessons from the Female Founders in Hospitality Summit. By Stephanie Smith Stephanie Smith of Cogwheel recently joined an incredible panel at the Female Founders in Hospitality Summit in New York, moderated by Saadiq Rodgers-King, an AI Transformation Consultant, alongside Kim Bennett of AtlasGuru and Katrina Stalcup of Fora Travel. Here were a few of my biggest takeaways from the discussion. Start with the problem, not a tool. One of the biggest reasons AI pilots fail is that companies start with technology instead of a business problem. "I see this pattern over and over in my consulting work. Organizations say 'We need an AI strategy.' But what they actually need is clarity on what problem they're solving. The intent you bring determines what you get out of it." - Saadiq Rodgers-King Across the panel, the most successful examples of AI adoption came from solving clear operational challenges - whether that was scaling travel advisor support, generating travel itineraries, or analyzing hotel marketing performance. AI is not a strategy; it's an accelerator. If you don't know where you're going, it just gets you lost faster. Kim spoke to the lessons learned from building a consumer travel platform and evolving it into an AI-powered B2B product. It turned out the bigger business problem to solve was that travel companies are sitting on enormous content libraries with no scalable way to turn them into actionable trip plans with a high-quality, traveler-friendly UX that goes far beyond what a chatbot can offer. The AI use case became much cleaner, the customer much clearer, and the value proposition much easier to articulate. "The lesson for us was about not falling in love with the solution you built. Sometimes the best AI lesson is a business lesson first." - Kim Bennett of AtlasGuru Data strategy comes before AI strategy. Another critical lesson: AI is only as good as the data behind it. "You can't build an AI strategy on top of messy data. If your data isn't clean, centralized, and standardized, AI will just amplify the chaos." - Stephanie Smith In hospitality, data is often spread across dozens of systems. Before organizations run with AI, they need to walk through the foundational work of data governance, consistent metrics, and standardized processes and documentation. "AI without context is just autocomplete. The organizations getting real value are the ones feeding AI with information no one else has." - Saadiq Rodgers-King Guardrails matter (especially with mcps). AI integrations like Model Context Protocol (MCP) can connect AI to real business systems. But with that power comes responsibility. "Just because AI can take action doesn't mean it should. The smartest implementations define clear boundaries between what AI suggests and what humans approve." - Stephanie Smith Thoughtful permissions and review processes are essential as organizations begin connecting AI to operational systems. "We're moving from AI that can answer questions to AI that can take actions. MCP lets AI connect to your actual business systems. That's incredibly powerful, but it also means you need to be intentional about what you let it do versus what still needs a human decision." - Saadiq Rodgers-King AI an iterative process - There is no "easy" Button. All panelists talked about the iterative and training process that AI needs to go through. There is no such thing as build once and be done. Any agent or chatbot needs more training than you think it will, and needs to be able to learn from a designed feedback loop, to continue to improve. "There is a false assumption that you can just plug in an AI tool and it works out of the box. The reality of what it takes to train and tune AI on proprietary data is an iterative process." - Katrina Stalcup of Fora Travel. Stephanie Smith of Cogwheel shared a time they opened up Claude MCP to their workflow system and it completely rewrote workflows in a matter of seconds. While easy, it was completely wrong and needed the "undo" button. Make time for AI experimentation. One of the most practical recommendations for leaders: give teams (and yourself!) time to experiment. "If your team doesn't have time to play with AI, they won't adopt it. Curiosity and experimentation are what actually drive innovation." - Stephanie Smith Organizations that create space for testing, sharing prompts, and learning together will move faster than those waiting for the "perfect" AI strategy. One of the easiest ways companies can start using AI today is by encouraging teams to create custom GPTs or Gems trained on their internal knowledge. "With the right culture, AI helps employees solve problems and vibe coding (like Cursor AI) has sped up development and expands their knowledge base which in turn makes them valuable." - Kim Bennett of AtlasGuru These internal assistants can help with SOPs, onboarding, marketing planning, and knowledge sharing.