The news: Bilt unveiled Neighborhood OS, an AI-powered commerce platform that connects local businesses with more customers and offers loyalty perks without getting new POS equipment, per a press release. 

Bilt also expanded its membership platform, letting partners including Hyatt and Marriott run branded loyalty programs on Bilt's infrastructure. Fiserv, Grubhub, Shift4, and other payments and commerce partners will distribute the platform to merchants nationwide starting in 2027.

The platform also incorporates Bilt’s recent reward push for sports fans after it acquired Lava for $300 million.

Zooming out: Over the past 12 months, Bilt members spent more than $12 billion in rewarded commerce at local businesses—a big volume opportunity for connected merchants. 

• Two-thirds of Americans do at least 80% of their everyday spending within 15 miles of home, per Bilt’s 2026 State of the Neighborhood study.
• 95% said they would try a local business at least once if they could earn rewards there.
• 87% said they would shop more often at a local business that offered rewards.

Roughly $6.6 trillion worth of retail and food-service spend happens in person annually, per US Census Bureau data cited by Bilt, yet most local businesses still run on disconnected point-of-sale (POS), reservation, and loyalty systems.

Implications for payment providers: Bilt is betting that merchants will pay to access the company’s engaged membership if it’s built into the hardware and software they already use. That could lower the switching costs that have kept independent restaurants and shops out of more sophisticated loyalty tech. 

That could also create a halo effect for partners like Fiserv and Shift4 that facilitate access to Bilt’s program without requiring new hardware.

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