Fourth, a long-standing name in hospitality workforce and inventory management, has rolled out Fourth iQ 2.2—an upgrade aimed squarely at helping managers run tighter, more informed operations. The release introduces a trio of fresh AI-powered recommendations designed to sharpen scheduling accuracy, reduce administrative drag, and improve daily decision-making in restaurants, bars, hotels, and other hospitality venues.
Clinton Anderson, CEO at Fourth, framed the release as part of the company’s steady march toward a more intuitive, context-aware platform. “iQ 2.2 helps managers make more informed, data-led decisions, while reducing the effort needed to stay on top of daily operations,” he said, underscoring Fourth’s focus on speed, precision, and user experience.
From Reactive to Proactive Hospitality Scheduling
Workforce management in hospitality has increasingly shifted from manual, reactive scheduling to AI-guided optimisation. Fourth iQ 2.2 pushes that transition forward with three new features aimed at closing communication gaps and surfacing insights faster.
1. Published Schedule Action: Ending the ‘Outdated Schedule’ Problem
Manual schedule updates are notorious for leaving teams misaligned. The new alert helps managers publish updates promptly, preventing staff from relying on stale versions and reducing service friction. For an industry where predictable shift coverage is everything, this is a meaningful quality-of-life improvement.
2. Busy Periods Sales Alerts: “What Happened Yesterday?” At a Glance
Hospitality demand is volatile, but data isn’t. Fourth’s Labour Productivity engine now identifies the previous day’s three busiest trading periods and sends managers a quick sales digest. With less digging required, managers can adjust future rosters to match demand—especially useful for multi-unit operators juggling multiple peaks across locations.
3. Assign Employee Skill Action: Keeping the Right Skills on Shift
Within Fourth’s Auto-Scheduling system, employees carry skill scores based on training and experience. Anyone new arrives with a default “0,” prompting a new alert that reminds managers to assign an appropriate skill level. The feature reduces the odds of putting untrained staff on core shifts and supports overall service quality—an ongoing challenge as hospitality continues to battle high turnover.
Oscar Congote, Planning & Special Projects Director at International Restaurant Services Inc, summed it up: “With iQ, we can anticipate challenges before they happen and that kind of forward thinking makes a huge difference in our operations.” That sentiment tracks with a broader trend across hospitality tech—AI shifting from support tool to operational co-pilot.
A More Polished, More Transparent iQ Experience
Fourth iQ 2.2 isn’t just smarter—it’s easier to use. The update includes several UX refinements shaped by customer feedback:
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Clearer “iQ Reasoning” text showing why each recommendation was generated
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Improved prioritization logic to surface time-sensitive actions first
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Region-specific formats for currencies, date, time, and decimal standards
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A refreshed interface with animated highlights, expandable action cards, and an optimized iPad landscape mode
Together, these changes make the platform feel less like a data feed and more like a real-time operations assistant—one that explains its thinking and helps managers act quickly.
A Growing AI Library for a High-Demand Sector
Fourth iQ has steadily evolved into one of the more sophisticated intelligence engines in hospitality HR tech. The 2.2 release reinforces the platform’s trajectory toward predictive scheduling, cost control, and improved employee experience—an increasingly critical trio as operators face higher labor costs, tighter margins, and rising service expectations.
The update also signals Fourth’s intention to keep expanding its AI recommendation library, giving managers faster, more actionable insights without forcing them to toggle between scattered reports and systems.
In a sector where speed, accuracy, and staff consistency can make or break guest experience, Fourth iQ 2.2 feels like a timely upgrade.
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Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure. Public relations, investor relations, public policy and marketing professionals rely on Business Wire for secure and accurate distribution of market-moving news and multimedia. Founded in 1961, Business Wire is a trusted source for news organizations, journalists, investment professionals and regulatory authorities, delivering news directly into editorial systems and leading online news sources via its multi-patented NX network. Business Wire’s global newsrooms are available to meet the needs of communications professionals and news media worldwide.
