INNOVATIONS &
INNOVATIONS & TECHNOLOGIES HILTON AND IBM PILOT “CONNIE,” THE WORLD’S FIRST WATSON- ENABLED HOTEL CONCIERGE YOU READ ABOUT IT… WE TRIED IT! Cutting edge HMS @ Grand Ambassador Seoul Hilton Worldwide have recently outlined a collaboration to pilot “Connie” – the first Watson-enabled robot concierge in the hospitality industry. Connie draws on domain knowledge from Watson and WayBlazer to inform guests on local tourist attractions, dining recommendations and hotel features and amenities. Connie, named for Hilton’s founder Conrad Hilton, marks the first time IBM has developed a Watson-enabled robot for the hospitality market. Imagine if you could bypass the line at the front desk and ask Connie about your checkout time, how to get to the gym or even the top sushi recommendations in the area? Using cognitive technology for hospitality not only builds the customer experience, but also expands the brand journey and enables staff to have more time to serve each guest. Currently stationed near reception at the Hilton McLean in Virginia, Connie is learning to interact with guests and respond to their questions in a friendly and informative manner. Connie uses a combination of Watson APIs, including Dialog, Speech to Text, Text to Speech and Natural Language Classifier, to enable it to greet guests upon arrival and to answer questions about hotel amenities, services and hours of operation. In recent editions of the SMARTreport, we covered a trial, at Seoul’s Grand Ambassador Hotel, of a new Hotel Management System by Samsung that allows guests to manage all functions of their room via their TV. Curious to know whether this was just hype or something really useful, our management and editorial staff recently stayed at the hotel, and tried out one of the “concept” rooms. The first difference one notices is the TV remote control, which is very modern and resembles the most recent remote controls one can find in consumer TVs. While there is a user notice, as the system is highly intuitive, it’s simple to find one’s way without added directions. Switching on the TV, you automatically get a specific menu for all in-room controls. It is fun to play with, but at the end of the day, it is frankly very useful, so it is fair to say this is not a gadget. If you don’t want to use the TV as an interface, there is a dashboard that gives the same functions right next to the bed - quite useful for the night or the morning when you don’t feel like switching on the TV. Our hats are off to the Grand Ambassador for leading with trials of this cutting edge technology.
