Hiring and keeping restaurant staff can be difficult and expensive, so why not mobilize AI to help build communities of hospitality employees, employers, mentors, and matchmakers?
That’s the idea behind a new venture called MAJC (pronounced magic), based in Boston, with a strong Miami presence. CEO Andy Coughlin now lives in South Florida, and the group’s Culinary Council has its headquarters in the Magic City.
MAJC is starting out with $2 million in funding from investor associates, and today, offers an early version of its “workforce engine for hospitality” in a soft launch, Coughlin told RefreshMiami.
So far, the company employs 10 people, including some software developers in Prague, Czechia, in central Europe. Its AI-assisted program now comes in five languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, and especially for Miami, Haitian Creole. Plans call for rolling out a more robust version of the program by mid-year, the CEO said.
Too little tech focused on hospitality employees
Coughlin, a veteran of tech giants Microsoft, Meta and other multinationals, joined with a chef friend, Matt Jennings, to create MAJC. Coughlin said he grew up in the hospitality industry, first cooking with Mama Lee in Virginia when he was young. He and chef Jennings feel that tech solutions for hospitality too often focus on the customer experience or back-office operations, instead of vital and their career development.
“Hospitality is about the people that serve you at the restaurant or hotel,” not just about making reservations or optimizing purchases from suppliers, Coughlin said. Scores of employees hired at restaurants and hotels leave – often within 30 to 60 days – because of insufficient training, mentoring and opportunities for their career advancement. That worker churn elevates costs for restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality businesses, he added.
To trim turnover and bolster employees, MAJC offers each hospitality worker signed up with its program an AI-based agent as a personal assistant. The agent can answer requests, such as “I need help cutting carrots,” guiding the employee to videos, many created in-house. It also can guide employees to online courses in MAJC’s online Academy for training and career development.
“We have hundreds and hundreds of hours of conversation that [co-founder] Matt has had with the best chefs, owners and operators in the country. So, what the AI will do is to go into the conversations … and take out the minutes and seconds addressing the question that you’ve got,” Coughlin said.
Then, based on employee requests, the courses taken and certifications earned, the agent can suggest next steps, such as attending live, online meetings with experts on MAJC’s Culinary Council, including South Florida chef Michelle Bernstein. The personal assistant also can help match an employee with available jobs, streamlining the hiring process both for the worker and for employers, said the CEO.
Opportunity in cities with restaurant density, diversity
Coughlin sees demand for MAJC’s program strongest in cities with a density of restaurants and high worker turnover, such as New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Miami. He also expects hefty demand in places with diverse workforces, including Miami, where roughly half of residents were born outside the United States. The program can help employees of varied backgrounds “get better at your job and advance in your career,” he said.
Revenue will come from a monthly fee paid by hospitality operators will use MAJC to recruit, hire, train and mentor employees. The platform will be free for employees – at least for now, said Coughlin.
MAJC made its public debut in February as a Trade Day sponsor for the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. Its introduction featured members of its Culinary Council, including Darden restaurant chain’s Chief People Officer Sarah King and chefs Bernstein and Andrew Zimmern.
The launch underscores the rapid rise of agentic AI and its applications. “I’ve never seen anything that has moved so fast,” said Coughlin. “Literally, six months ago, we couldn’t have built what we built.”
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Pictured above: MAJC co-founders Matt Jennings and Andy Coughlin.
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