Dubai: If you’re staying at a Hilton Worldwide hotel and need restaurant recommendations or information on tourist attractions in the area, Connie will be there to help you out.
Connie, a robot concierge, has been stationed at the Hilton McLean in Virginia, Hilton Worldwide said in a statement on Tuesday. It is developed by the US technology company IBM, and named after Hilton’s founder Conrad Hilton.
Connie, said to be the first Watson-enabled robot concierge in the hospitality industry, uses Watson APIs (application programming interface), including dialogue, speech to text, text to speech and natural language classifier, to enable it to greet guests and answer their questions regarding hotel amenities, services and hours of operation.
Watson is a cognitive computing technology platform that uses natural language processing and machine learning to give insights from large amounts of unstructured data, according to IBM’s website.
Connie can also suggest local attractions outside the hotel by tapping into WayBlazer’s travel domain knowledge powered by Watson.
“We’re focused on reimagining the entire travel experience to make it smarter, easier and more enjoyable for guests,” stated Jonathan Wilson, vice president, product innovation and brand services at Hilton Worldwide.
The more guests interact with Connie, the more it learns, adapts and improves its recommendations.
The hotel will also have access to the questions asked and Connie’s answers to help it improve guests’ experiences during their stay.
Other hotel companies have introduced robots too. Two years ago, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide launched a robotic butler called Botlr that makes deliveries to guests’ hotel rooms.
