> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.foundedbywomen.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # From Redundancy to Reinvention: How Maria Sze Built Make Lemonade and Is Now Decoding How AI Recommends Brands - URL: https://www.foundedbywomen.org/women-who-lead/from-redundancy-to-reinvention-how-maria-sze-built-make-lemonade-and-is-now-decoding-how-ai-recommends-brands/ - Published: 2026-09-18T08:59:29.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-18T08:59:29.000Z - Author: Editorial team - Tags: Women Who Lead In 2016, Maria Sze lost her husband, left to raise two young sons on her own. Two years later, after nearly three decades in brand and communications, she was made redundant. There was no five-year plan waiting on the other side, just a network she trusted, a lifetime of hard-earned judgment, and a need to figure out what came next. That crossroads became [Make Lemonade](https://www.make-lemonade.co.uk/?ref=foundedbywomen.org), a consultancy built on the freelance economy rather than a traditional agency model, pulling together the right specialists for each client instead of carrying permanent overhead. It was, as Maria describes it, starting again without starting from scratch: something entirely new, built on thirty years of relationships and experience she wasn't willing to leave behind. Today, alongside business partner Sara Lemos, Maria has taken that same instinct for reinvention into new territory: understanding how generative AI is reshaping the way luxury travel and hospitality brands are discovered, interpreted, and recommended. Their proprietary methodology, SIGNAL NOIR®, is helping brands make sense of a landscape most of the industry is still trying to catch up to. We spoke with Maria about redundancy as a catalyst, the unlikely partnership behind Make Lemonade, and why she believes AI hasn't erased the fundamentals of good communications, it's amplified them. > Know a founder (or are one) doing incredible work? **Founded by Women Awards** are open for entries. If you're building something bold, leading with purpose, or driving change in your industry, we'd love for you to enter. 👉 [foundedbywomen.org/awards](https://www.foundedbywomen.org/awards/) --- ### Q: You’ve described Make Lemonade as “starting again without starting from scratch” - what led you to build the business after such a significant period of personal and professional reinvention? [Make Lemonade](http://www.make-lemonade.co.uk/?ref=foundedbywomen.org) really came out of a time when my life had turned upside down. I lost my husband in 2016 when our two boys were still young. A couple of years later, after nearly 30 years in brand and communications, I was made redundant. Suddenly, I was at a crossroads I hadn’t planned for, both personally and professionally. I had two children to support and I needed to work, but I also had to figure out what I actually wanted my next chapter to look like. I didn’t have this burning ambition to be an entrepreneur, and I certainly didn’t have a beautifully polished business plan. I just started with what I knew. What I did have was three decades of experience, a fantastic network of people I trusted, and a gut feeling that there was a better way to do the work I loved. So, Make Lemonade initially started as a consultancy built on the freelance economy. Instead of keeping a large, permanent agency team, I could pull together exactly the right specialists for each client and each problem - people who could do brilliant work quickly, without the traditional agency overhead. Looking back, redundancy gave me the push I needed to question the career rules I grew up with. I learned that security doesn’t always come from having a staff job; sometimes, it comes from knowing what you’re good at, finding the people who value it, and betting on yourself. That’s what I mean by starting again without starting from scratch. I was building something brand new, but I was bringing 30 years of relationships, mistakes, and hard-earned judgment along with me. ### Q: Make Lemonade has evolved again as you and Sara Lemos began exploring how AI is reshaping brand discovery and reputation, particularly in luxury travel and hospitality - what’s driving that shift, and what have you learned along the way? Curiosity, mostly! And Sara and I have a fairly bottomless supply of it. We were introduced by a mutual friend, and our collaboration just grew organically from there. We both come from communications, but we approach it from completely different angles. My background is in brand and creative strategy, while Sara’s is rooted in digital communications. Today, she leads the tech and data analysis side of things, and I take those insights and ask: Okay, so what does this actually mean for the brand, why should we care and what do we do about it? That contrast has become our superpower. We can look at the exact same problem, see entirely different things, and challenge each other until we land on something much more interesting. We started digging into generative AI because it was obvious it wasn’t just going to change how we make content. It was changing how people discover, understand, and choose brands. When someone asks an AI platform to recommend a luxury hotel, it doesn’t just spit out search results. It interprets the prompt, makes associations, weighs sources it trusts, and curates a short list. We were fascinated by what was actually driving those recommendations, and what that meant for the PR industry we knew so well. Instead of pretending to be instant experts, we just started researching. We ran hundreds of prompts across different platforms, wrote a couple of white papers, and eventually built SIGNAL NOIR®, our own proprietary methodology, to figure out how AI interprets and recommends brands. We definitely aren't the stereotypical “tech bros” you might picture running an AI consultancy, and I honestly think that’s our biggest advantage. We get communications, reputation, and brand building first. Sara interrogates the data, I translate it into strategy, and together we make this intimidating, highly technical landscape accessible and useful. Luxury travel and hospitality naturally became our focus because it's an industry built entirely on reputation, editorial authority, emotion, and storytelling. If there's one massive takeaway so far, it’s that AI hasn’t erased the fundamentals of good communications - it’s amplified them. Credible journalism, clear positioning, and third-party validation are exactly what teach these machines how to understand a brand. We’re still learning, too, and I think it's crucial to admit that. This space moves incredibly fast. Our goal isn’t to claim we’ve cracked some secret code; it’s to keep asking better questions, gathering evidence, and turning it into practical intelligence for our clients. ### Q: What’s next for Make Lemonade? More questions! The deeper we go, the more fascinating the questions get. We started out just wondering if brands were even visible in AI recommendations. Now, we’re digging into why one gets picked over another, what shapes that choice, and whether AI influence actually changes real-world booking behavior. We’re continuing to refine SIGNAL NOIR® and our research in the luxury space, working closely with hotels, resorts and agencies to turn our findings into tangible actions - everything from PR strategy to website content. Education is also becoming a huge part of what we do. There’s a lot of very valid anxiety around AI right now, especially in creative fields. We spend a lot of time reassuring communications teams that this isn’t a battle between human expertise and tech. The real opportunity is using AI intelligence to sharpen human judgment, not replace it. On a personal level, I’m just really enjoying building a business I never could have predicted. I’m way less interested in a rigid five-year plan than I used to be. What I do want is for us to stay relentlessly curious, keep doing work that adds real value to the conversation, and establish Make Lemonade as a trusted voice in this new space. If the last few years have taught me anything, it’s that you can have a clear sense of direction without needing to know exactly where the road ends. > Are you a woman leader with an inspiring story? Founded by Women elevates the voices of women making an impact. > Breaking barriers or paving the way for others? We'd love to feature you. Get in touch! 👉 [hi@foundedbywomen.org](mailto:hi@foundedbywomen.org)