in Hospitality
AI Hologram Anna
at Pullman London
Real-Time Conversational AI
at "The Future We Taste"
Hospitality runs on a feeling: that someone is there for you, ready to welcome you, answer the odd question, and make the evening flow. As AI moves into guest experiences, the challenge is keeping that feeling intact. For “The Future We Taste,” Pullman London St Pancras wanted guests to meet conversational AI the same way they’d meet a good host: face to face, in real time, mid-conversation. RAVATAR created Anna, a photorealistic AI hologram who served as the evening’s digital co-host, built to greet, answer, and converse in real time.
When Pullman set out to turn a single night into a glimpse of the future of food and hospitality, it needed more than a screen on the wall. It needed a presence that could greet guests, hold a conversation, and open up the big questions the evening was built to ask.
How an AI Hologram
Joined a Dinner About the Future of Food
On 12 June 2026, Pullman London St Pancras hosted “The Future We Taste,” a Pullman xChange event: an invitation-only, fully immersive, multisensory evening built around a single question, who will define what we eat in the future.
The night was hosted by Chef Jozef Youssef, founder of Kitchen Theory, and structured as a four-step dining experience. It opened at 6:30pm with a cocktail moment designed to connect guests and set the tone, then moved through four courses, each one exploring a theme shaping the future of hospitality and dining: wellbeing, sustainability, innovation, and technology.
Each course was built to challenge an assumption. Wellbeing came as a Hyperfoods Bento Box, drawn from a Kitchen Theory and Imperial College London project that uses AI and machine learning to identify bioactive molecules in everyday ingredients. Sustainability arrived as citrus-cured jellyfish with yuzu kosho gel, compressed cucumber, and Oscietra caviar. Innovation took the form of a 3D-printed plant-based flank steak. Technology closed the night as “Desert Mirage,” a four-part dessert with a chocolate sphere, liquid nitrogen sand, and gold camel milk ice cream. This wasn’t a static showcase. It was a living conversation about food, technology, and what ends up on our plates, and it needed a host who could carry that conversation into the realm of AI.
An AI Hologram as a Live Event Host
Developed by RAVATAR, Anna is a photorealistic AI Hologram who joined the evening as its digital co-host and hologram guide, one example of an AI avatar for events in action. She arrived brand-aligned, with a persona built for the venue: a Pullman Host inspired by the original Pullman Porters who welcomed passengers aboard George Pullman’s sleeping cars. Throughout the night she greeted guests and opened conversations around the evolution of food and hospitality in real time.
Anna’s value started the moment a guest looked her way. Face, voice, and presence came together in a single interactive experience: real-time conversational AI that responded to the room, picked up the threads each course was exploring, and made the future feel like something you could talk to rather than something you read about. For many guests, it was the first time they’d met an AI that talks back, standing right there beside the table.
Across the evening, the message log recorded 61 guest exchanges with Anna, from the afternoon build-up to the final course near midnight. Guests asked her things a printed menu could never answer.
Founder of Kitchen Theory
Leadership Insight
“Big congrats to the team that worked on Anna! I was completely taken aback by how well Anna was able to formulate and articulate answers to even the most unexpected and unusual questions. Anna’s performance and live interaction with the diners was outstanding. This is the first but not the last of these events and it’s only going to get better!” — commented Chef Jozef Youssef.
Looking to Make
AI Interaction Feel Real?