Hotel mogul Petter Stordalen and his Strawberry group are preparing to pour hundreds of millions of kroner into artificial intelligence over the coming years, betting that the technology will fundamentally reshape Norwegian business, e24.no reported.
The investment plan follows recent acquisitions made through Stordalen’s PR network, Storm. Strawberry acquired a 70 percent stake in advertising film company Verk and a 35 percent stake in AI consultancy Spinner, alongside co-owner Prosper Group.
From Evolution to Execution Across Industries
Sitting in a preserved, historical meeting room at Sommerro—once the headquarters of Oslo Lysverker—Stordalen framed the tech shift not as a sudden uprising, but as a steady progression. Strawberry has already integrated numerous AI solutions across its operations.
– We have taken AI into use in a lot of solutions, and we see what it can deliver. I think we are at the beginning of… Not a revolution. But an evolution, Stordalen told e24.no.
The spending spree will not stop at hospitality. Stordalen noted that charter operator Ving, which Strawberry previously owned before selling a stake to Norwegian in the summer as part of an agreement making Strawberry a major owner in the airline, is set to follow the exact same playbook. He predicted that other corporate giants like Norwegian will have no choice but to follow suit to stay competitive.
Internal testing has already touched diverse departments within the hotel empire. Both accounting teams and housekeeping staff have experimented with AI tools to drive efficiency, yielding positive feedback from workers who report handling greater volumes with higher precision rather than facing staff cuts.
Commercial Film Production and Consulting
The newly acquired companies aim to tackle specific market frictions. Verk will operate as a subsidiary within Stordalen’s agency network, focusing on augmenting human-made commercial films rather than replacing them with entirely synthetic video.
– Historically, we know that in the advertising world, film is something very many want to do, but it is damn expensive. Now we have three people from the industry who come and say “we can do the same, but far better, and cheaper,” Stordalen said.
Verk founder Mari Grundnes Paus pointed out that purely synthetic AI film companies struggle to meet the specific communication needs of commercial clients. By cutting production costs, clients can redirect capital toward purchasing actual television advertising time.
Meanwhile, Spinner targets companies navigating the early hurdles of AI adoption. Spinner founder Simon Isaksen compared the consultancy’s role to a master builder called in to alter load-bearing structures rather than someone simply painting a wall.
Workforce Realities and Personal Health Data
While automation anxiety often shadows discussions about artificial intelligence, Stordalen remains unconcerned about mass layoffs, arguing that efficiency simply shifts focus to other tasks. He dismissed the viability of autonomous robotic servers in hotels, noting that trials involving breakfast-delivery robots yielded poor practical results.
Isaksen drew a parallel to predictions surrounding radiologists whose jobs were once thought threatened by automated image analysis. Instead, lower costs and easier access have driven higher overall volume, resulting in more practicing radiologists than before.
On a personal level, Stordalen shared that he uses Google’s AI assistant, Gemini, to parse his biannual blood test results. After feeding the data into the chatbot, he received detailed explanations of medical abbreviations that he subsequently had verified by healthcare professionals.
– They said it was a fantastically good analysis. So in the future, I just need the blood tests, and Gemini can do the analysis, Stordalen said, suggesting the method frees up physicians to spend more time with other patients.
Asked whether sharing medical data with an AI tool raises privacy concerns, Isaksen offered a brief caveat: – I hope he is not using a free version.
