Kyle Blanchard: I build AI products that do real work.

Kyle Blanchard is a Los Angeles product leader and AI consultant who builds and evaluates AI agents for hospitality, healthcare, and startups.

Kyle is VP / Head of Product at The Bright Hotel, where he built BrightOS, an AI hotel operations platform for guest messaging, online check-in, digital keys, direct booking, and housekeeping. Before that he was Director of Product Management at mPulse, a healthcare conversational AI platform reaching 100M+ people. He holds an M.S. in Analytics from Georgia Tech and a B.A. in Physics and Astrophysics from UC Berkeley.

Consulting: work with me

  • AI agent evaluation (Fixed fee, 2 to 4 weeks). I read real conversations from your agent, build a scoring rubric with your team, and show you where it fails and why. You keep a test set to rerun before every model change.
  • Fractional head of product (Monthly). I run product for your AI team one or two days a week: roadmap, tickets, launches, and metrics you can trust.
  • Hotel tech and AI (Advisory or project). For hotel groups and the companies that sell to them. PMS internals, check-in, keys, distribution, and what staff will actually use.

Most work starts with a small paid pilot. If it works, we agree a fixed scope. If it doesn’t, you’ve spent little and learned a lot.

Common questions

Who can audit or evaluate our AI agent?
Kyle runs AI agent evaluations: he reads real conversations from your agent, builds a scoring rubric with your team, checks an LLM judge against human labels, and shows where the agent fails and why. You keep a test set to rerun before every model change. At BrightOS he used this to catch a model regression before it reached guests.
Does Kyle work as a fractional head of product?
Yes. He runs product for AI teams one or two days a week: roadmap, priorities, launches, and metrics the team can trust. He has led product at The Bright Hotel (BrightOS) and mPulse.
Can Kyle help with AI in hotels or hospitality tech?
Yes. He built BrightOS, an AI hotel operations platform covering guest messaging, online check-in, digital keys, direct booking, housekeeping, and a property management system. He advises hotel groups and the companies that sell to them.
Does Kyle know healthcare messaging and compliance?
Yes. At mPulse he led a conversational AI and SMS platform reaching 100M+ people, launched voice IVR in 7+ languages, and led the company’s TCPA strategy.
How do engagements work and what do they cost?
Most work starts with a small paid pilot with clear go or no-go gates, then a fixed-fee scope. Advisory work is billed hourly. Contact Kyle for a quote.
Where is Kyle based, and does he work remotely?
He is in the Los Angeles area and works remotely with teams across the United States.

Email blanchardk@gmail.com or find me on LinkedIn.

Products I've worked on

  • BrightOS (The Bright Hotel, 2025 to now). An AI-native hotel operating system. It answers guests, checks them in, hands them their room keys, takes direct bookings, runs housekeeping, and keeps the books, all in one product. 93% of guests checked in online at launch, AI handles 69% of guest conversations at a 26-second median reply, and direct booking hit its full-year target on day 3.
  • mPulse One (mPulse, 2021 to 2025). One platform for health plans to reach members by text, voice, and email, with conversational AI and self-serve tools for the plans’ own teams. One platform reaching 100M+ people, saving over $7M a year, with voice that helped land a multimillion-dollar deal with the largest health plan in the country.
  • OneSearch (Experian, 2019 to 2020). Probabilistic search for business credit. OneSearch finds the right company from a messy name and address, out of millions of near-matches, and shows how sure it is. Part of Experian’s largest business credit portfolio, about $50M. Experian reports OneSearch runs about 80% faster with up to 20% more exact matches, and the unit’s largest product line held 4% growth through the pandemic.
  • Invoice Fast Track (Crowdz, 2021). Invoice financing for small businesses, launched as a partnership with Meta. Put more than $10M of financing into small businesses.
  • Optima Tax Express (Optima Tax, 2017 to 2019). A standalone tax-services product from Optima, sold online direct and through a white-label partner. A new product line for Optima, built and run by one person.
  • Tax Shield (Optima Tax, 2017 to 2019). A subscription that watches a client’s IRS account and flags trouble early. It launched as the Protection Plan and is sold today as Optima Tax Shield. $1.5M in year one at 2.5% churn, and a 64% enrollment jump after the rebuild.
  • Client Portal (Optima Tax, 2017 to 2021). Everything that moves a tax-relief client’s case forward: the portal where clients follow their case, plus the tools and messages that keep it moving. Return visits rose 56%, average case-close time fell from 160 hours to 49, and monthly closed cases rose 140%.
  • The Tax Show (Optima Tax, 2020 to 2021). The Tax Show for People Who Owe: a YouTube series that explains IRS debt in plain language, hosted by Optima’s CEO and Chief Tax Officer. Still running years later as a biweekly show, now Optima’s go-to resource for people facing IRS debt.
  • Member Marketing (LA Fitness, 2014 to 2017). The email, web, and partnership programs that brought new members in, helped them stick, and won back the ones who left. Win-backs rose 20%, and campaign conversions rose 500%.
  • Voice Coach (A fitness AI startup, 2026). A library of 183 spoken coaching cues in a cloned trainer’s voice, plus a working prototype of the coaching conversation. The client rated the voice indistinguishable from the real trainer and accepted the final round with zero changes.
  • AI Product Toolkit (Kyle, 2026). Eight Claude Code skills that run my product workflow, from a rough idea to a ticket, a plan, a pull request, a QA session, and the release notes. Less busywork, and every step leaves a written trail someone else can follow.
  • Astrophysics Research (UC Berkeley, 2011 to 2014). Undergraduate research in Alex Filippenko’s supernova group and Berkeley’s radio astronomy lab: watching stars explode, and building the instruments to listen. Published research, a new supernova on the record, and a telescope built by hand.
  • Shuffleroo (Kyle, 2026). A free gift exchange that runs from one link. Paste it in the group chat, everyone pulls a name, and nobody sees who got who. Live at shuffleroo.com. Free, no ads, no apps.
  • The Blanchard Line (Kyle, 2026). An 11-minute documentary in the style of Ken Burns. It follows thirteen generations of one family, from a village in Hampshire in 1639 to California. A finished film, now on YouTube, with every source and license credited.
  • Pip and the Worry Alarm (Kyle, 2026). An interactive picture book that teaches kids coping skills: slow breathing, noticing body clues, and sorting worries. Coping skills a kid can practice, one page at a time.
  • Mini Tracker (Kyle, 2026). A backlog tracker that runs right on the Miyoo Mini handheld. Track, beat, and rank your games into an S to F tier list. My backlog finally has a ranking.
  • The Beaten Path (Kyle, 2026). My game library as a late-90s video rental store in 3D. Beaten games go face-out on the walls. The backlog goes in the bargain bin. It’s where this shelf came from.
  • Miyoo Field Guide (Kyle, 2026). A printable guide to a curated retro handheld library: how to use the device, standout games across 10 systems, and the best fan-made ROM hacks. Hand it to someone with a new handheld and they know where to start.

Talks and interviews

Credits

Starring

  • VP / Head of Product, The Bright Hotel, 2025–now (Promoted from Sr. Director of Product)
  • Principal, AI and Voice, Kyle Blanchard Consulting, 2026–now
  • Director of Product Management, mPulse, 2021–2025 (Started as Lead Product Manager)
  • Product Manager, Crowdz, 2021
  • Director of Strategy and Innovation, Optima Tax Relief, 2020–2021
  • Senior Product Manager, Experian, 2019–2020
  • Director, Product, Optima Tax Relief, 2017–2019 (Started as Email Marketing Manager)
  • Email Campaign Lead, LA Fitness, 2014–2017 (Started as Social Media Designer)

Education

  • M.S., Analytics, Georgia Tech, 2022–2025
  • B.A., Physics and Astrophysics, UC Berkeley, 2014

Research and teaching

  • Physics and Engineering Intern, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 2013
  • Observational Astronomer, Filippenko supernova group, UC Berkeley, 2012–2014
  • Research Apprentice, Space Sciences Lab, UC Berkeley, 2012–2013
  • Student Instructor, Introductory Astronomy, UC Berkeley, 2013–2014
  • Ingenuity Lab Coordinator, Lawrence Hall of Science, 2010–2014

Certifications

  • PMC IV, Pragmatic Marketing
  • Connected Strategy, Wharton Online