The boss of the Forge Holiday Group has spoken about his obsession with all things AI.
Speaking on The Dealmaker Uncut Podcast, co-hosted by award-winning dealmaker Jonathan Boyers and BusinessCloud’s executive editor Chris Maguire, Donoghue predicted 2025 would be the year of the AI agents.
AI agents are autonomous intelligent systems performing specific tasks without human intervention.
Donoghue said: “I can just see the shift is happening in the pace of change in AI.
“I think 2025 is going to the year of AI agents. These are digital agents that are actually performing tasks for you.
“We are using a lot in our business. We have agent handling conversations with owners and guests. We use AI in a lot of marketing technology. It gives us a real competitive advantage.
“We’ve just gone through an AI maturity study, where we’ve tried to work out where are we? What does good look like? How do we get to superpower / world class?”
Forge Holiday Group is on the cusp of achieving unicorn status but gets a fraction of the attention of its rivals Airbnb and Booking.com.
Today the company manages 33,000 properties; handles 700,000 annual bookings; has 1,800 staff; and transacts more than £500m a year.
Donoghue is a part-time beekeeper and became CEO of Sykes Cottages in 2016 – a year after the company raised £54m from Living Bridge.
In 2019 Vitruvian Partners took a majority stake in the business for a reputed £400m and Forge Holiday Group’s valuation means it’s close to becoming a unicorn.
Donoghue is a self-confessed ‘data junkie’ and describes Forge Holiday Group as a technology business masquerading as a holiday company.
In a far-reaching interview, Donoghue talks his early career at MoneySuperMarket.com and why he doesn’t share the media’s obsession with becoming a unicorn.
You can listen to the episode here