Service Robots and AI: What impact on the future of Hospitality

The question might sound futuristic, yet the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly revolutionizing the business-as-usual model of the hospitality industry. It has the potential to disrupt the customer experience as we know it, and could provide powerful tools to help humans in their decision-making processes, which will impact the industry’s entire workforce.To get more news about Logistics Robotics, you can visit glprobotics.com official website.

The challenge is to ensure that companies integrate AI and frontline service robots in a fair and equitable way. For that, we need to consider several dimensions such as:

The ethical considerations linked to the use of robots in a service delivery context (replacement, responsibility, trust/safety, privacy/data protection, autonomy, and human cues).
The customer experience (customer-robot interaction).
The optimization of robots’ usage by employees (employee-robot interaction/co-creation with a robot).
How AI can improve customer experience
By allowing robots to perform repetitive human tasks, AI is redesigning the customer experience. But to what extent? The question remains an open one. However, robots can now provide support to employees or even replace them in some cases. Robots are increasingly being created with specific features that allow them to perform some of the essential tasks of the industry. For example, service robots can perform some of the functions of a waiter, a barista, or the housekeeping team.

One notable example is The Henn na Hotel Tokyo Ginza - which took the risky bet to automate as many of its activities and services as possible with the use of now-obsolete robots. The goal was clear: the robots could add to the customer experience, improve margins by reducing costs, and eliminate headcount and workloads. But not everything went according to plan, and the reviews were mixed at best.

“Apparently, a large percentage of the robots were more adept at creating work for their human counterparts than they were at reducing it,” Esther Hertzfeld wrote in an article for Hotel Management. The experiment failed, and the hotel ended up sacking more than half of its 243 strong robot workforce after complaints from both staff and customers.

How the Hospitality sector can take advantage of futuristic opportunities
Robots have come a long way since then, and the robotization of the industry is accelerating rapidly as technology and connectivity improves. The use of AI in the field of robotics has also opened up enormous opportunities for the hospitality sector, with a growing range of uses that can improve customer experience, brand awareness and customer loyalty.

More recently, COVID-19 has played an essential role in developing this trend. Robots now allow certain skills, actions and services to be executed more safely than human beings. There is simply no risk of catching the virus with robots because robots simply do not… breathe.

This non-negligible fact is beneficial for ensuring a safe customer experience and protecting the employees during a pandemic. Robots can be easily sanitized between each guest and, therefore, ensure safe in-room delivery, for instance. They can perform UV disinfection that humans cannot, and non-contact services such as digital concierge offerings, chatbots, or voice-activated and enabled rooms are already fixtures in the hotel rooms of tomorrow. Besides service robots, digital interfaces driven by AI are likely to become omnipresent across the industry.

How will AI impact society and workforce? Is a collaboration possible?
At this particular time, the usage of robots makes perfect health sense, but the rapid deployment of robots is not without its controversy, especially in countries where the unemployment rate is high. Seasonal, casual and some operational staff in the hospitality industry could be most impacted over time by the rise of artificial intelligence.

Research by McKinsey shows that AI is already having a major impact on the workforce, but it’s not the only technological mega-trend shaping the future of work. “Trends like remote work, e-commerce, and continuing automation could mean more than 100 million workers might need to find a different occupation by 2030 - that’s roughly the same as the populations of Canada and Italy combined,” the consultancy said in an August 2021 report.

Getting service robots and customers to co-exist
In addition, a key question still needs to be addressed: How will customers adapt to this trend? Do they expect or want their service to be provided by robots? Or, do they still want to be welcomed by smiling humans? The question doesn’t seem to be settled yet.

For some guests to accept the implementation of AI enabled service robots more easily, the robots must be able to show empathy and be able to interact, which remains a major technological challenge. At the same time, a whole new generation of travelers is growing increasingly accustomed to a humanless service experience. The future might bring a combination of both.

It would not be surprising if, in the future, if service robots were to become a new selection criterion for potential guests when they choose where to stay. Indeed, some hotels or hotel chains could choose robots to differentiate themselves and attract specific guest segments.

There is little doubt that upscale hotels will keep prioritizing human interactions, in order to maintain a competitive and premium offering. However, in other types of hotels where human interactions play a less important role, robots could definitely do the job.