A TRAVELLER enters a hotel. She does not see any people behind the reception desk. Instead, a robot takes her name, checks her in, and hands over her room key. Another robot takes her suitcase and escorts her to her room, which has just been cleaned by yet another robot.
Is this the future of hospitality? Many pundits have suggested so in recent years, as the cost of robotics falls compared with that of hiring staff. But events in Japan give pause for thought. The world’s first robot-operated hotel opened there in 2015. But only four years later, it is replacing many of its robots with humans.The Henn na Hotel got a slew of publicity and an entry into theas the first robot hotel.
But when the robots were put in place, things went wrong. The concierge struggled to answer guests’ questions. The dancers in the lobby broke down. The luggage-carriers could not climb stairs or go outside. A question-and-answer robot could not handle anything beyond basic inquiries—and responded to at least one guest’s snoring by waking him repeatedly to tell him it could not understand what he was saying.
Elsewhere in the travel industry, however, the general direction of travel is towards greater automation. For instance, Gatwick Airport near London is planning a trial this summer of a robot that will automatically park and retrieve the cars of those flying from its terminals, following similar trials in France and Germany. And more hotels are installing automated check-in machines to cut queues in the lobby.
In the hotel world, Ms Matsuo believes the future remains a robotic one. The lesson she learned from the struggles at the Strange Hotel is not that robots were a mistake. It is that “it is important to separate the services performed by robots and the services performed by humans.” Robots, she noted, might not yet be able to guess what guests want in the way that human hotel employees can, but they have abilities that humans lack.
Tech companies and visionaries have largely oversold automation. Hell it wasn't too long ago people were saying we'd have fully autonomous vehicles by 2020. Most jobs an 18 year old gets into today will likely still be here when they retire. It just may be more AI assisted.
Robots could change the world is it possible human dialogue and understanding communication would suffer ?
I see universal basic income approaching as a global reality.
Robots? Sheesh, I sure have missed a few things over the past decade.
You needed to write an article to tell us that?!
Russel Crowe will void their warranty
Perhaps robots will not fit in everywhere its natural
Is Asian going to be the generic face of the robot?
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Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »