Dubai: The days of receptionists and concierge service jobs are numbered in the UAE, as a new artificial intelligence technology to be rolled out soon could replace them.
The technology provider is ThingLogix, an Internet of Things (IoT) partner of Amazon Web Services, and it is called AI Smart Virtual Concierge.
Faisal Al Jundi, general manager for ThingLogix Middle East and Africa, told Gulf News that the technology used is known as Amazon Sumerian, which was announced in December. He said it also supports Amazon’s technology for natural voice language processing — Alexa.
“Alexa has lots of intelligence and experience as it has a market share of 71 per cent of all voice assistants in 2017. We found that customer-related services will benefit the most, followed by hospitality and education,” he said.
Instead of saying “Hi Alexa”, here it is “Hi Sara,” and the technology also supports virtual reality and augmented reality.
“Normally, when you want to enter a building or an office, you need to submit your ID as a proof but in this case, it scans your face and a three-step registration process and that’s all. In future visits, Sara will recognise your face and help you out,” he said.
The connectivity is provided by Dubai-based telecom operator du.
Ali Al Awadhi, Director of Artificial Intelligence at du, said that AI is a strategic plan and direction for du and will be covered in two main streams.
“One is to improve internal capabilities of du initially and followed by to help industries to robotice their activities and increase the dependency on AI to improve efficiency. Such services have to be reliable and the backend has to be reliable. It will work on 5G technology as it will give speed and reduce latency,” he said.
Wherever a concierge of a human being is applicable, he said that this technology can be applied.
“A concierge can forget things, but an AI will not. Some jobs will be lost but at the same time, new roles will emerge,” he added.
