Hotel guests amused by robotic desk clerk powered by IBM’s Watson.
Customers sometimes grouse about having to deal with a machine instead of a person. Guests at one hotel, though, have found recent non-human interactions quite amusing.
The McLean, Va., Hilton recently introduced Connie the Concierge, a somewhat human-looking robot powered by IBM’s Watson. Hotel guests ask Connie questions in their native language – Connie speaks and understands several languages, which gives it an advantage over most human concierges. Connie uses its voice and head, body and arm gestures to answer.
“I would say [we see] a lot of laughter, a lot of smiles,” said Jim Holthouser, Hilton’s Worldwide’s executive vice president of global brands. “Customers are intrigued. They don’t expect to see people conversing with a robot with human characteristics.”
Connie, named for founder Conrad Hilton, answers routine questions — Where is the elevator? Is there a great Korean restaurant nearby? What’s the fastest way to get to the airport? — in order to free up the front desk staff to perform other services for the guests. In a large, busy hotel, answering those kinds of questions can add up to significant amounts of time for the front desk staff.
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Another useful aspect of Connie is that it can gather data that can help the hotel assist its customers. If there are questions that a lot of guests ask, for example, the answers can be provided in an email before the guests even arrive.
IBM officials say they’re not looking at Connie as an employment-reduction tool. Rather, Connie is an experiment to gauge people’s reactions to, and comfort level with, dealing with robots,
The robot itself is called Nao, and is produced by Aldebaran. It’s about two-and-a-half feet tall and has been used mostly in educational settings.
In Connie’s case, Nao is packed with intelligence from Watson and WayBlazer, another IBM product that specializes in travel.
Watson, of course, is the question-answering computer system best known to the public as the first robotic “Jeopardy!” champion. In 2011, Watson competed against two former “Jeopardy!” champs and won.
Besides its informational function in the hotel, Connie has another benefit, Hilton officials say. The novelty of interacting with a human-like robot amuses and delights guests. They look at it, so far at least, as a bonus, almost like entertainment.
