Skift Take
The age of AI is here and it's coming to a hotel near you soon. The AI concierge is the new best friend of travelers and hoteliers alike.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a regular news item these days, perhaps most notably for fears that it will ultimately replace humans. This isn’t one of those articles. One area where AI and humans seem to be in harmony is with AI-powered personal assistants. Over the past few years we’ve managed to become relatively comfortable with the voice activated assistants living in our pockets and we’ve even begun inviting AI to help us control our homes. Now, the same kind of technology can be found in the form of an AI-powered hotel concierge.
Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
Enter the AI-powered hotel concierge. AI is becoming smarter, more useful and a real boost for the guest experience. Never has this been more evident than in Rose, Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas’ new AI concierge. Where Rose differs from many existing chat bots is in its personality. You’re first made aware of this by the calling card, which guests receive on check-in. It reads, “Know my secrets. Text me,” and “I am the answer to the question that you never asked.”
The card serves as a prelude to the conversational tone taken by the chat bot. It also has a phone number which you can text at any time, for just about anything you might want. In many cases, Rose will handle queries by itself but for anything it can’t handle, hotel staff can fill in the blanks. Rose can also advise on entertainment and things to do on and around the resort. What this means for guests is that they can literally have whatever they want, whenever they want it and they don’t even have to lift a finger.
Other Hotels Using an AI Concierge
Hilton Worldwide – Connie
Hilton Worldwide’s AI concierge, Connie was arguably the first true AI-powered concierge bot. Standing at almost two feet high, Connie is a bipedal robot with which guests could interact when arriving at the check-in desk. Using the computing power of IBM’s Watson AI and travel database WayBlazer, Connie can advise guests on local attractions and interesting sites. Connie also has the ability to fine-tune its responses by learning from frequent requests. Unfortunately, being a physical robot, you have to go to the desk to use the service.
Edwardian Hotels – Edward
Guests staying at Radisson Blu owned Edwardian Hotels can request the assistance of AI chat bot “Edward” by text message. The group stated in a press release that Edward is “designed to deliver exceptional experiences for guests who prefer digital brand interaction”. Edward can deliver information on local bars and restaurants as well as deal with complaints. Like Cosmopolitan’s Rose, when Edward can’t deliver the goods, hotel staff are standing by to step in.
In Conclusion
AI powered bots can lighten the load on hotel staff whilst at the same time provide a more private and personalised service for guests. While chat bots and mobile phone apps have managed to fulfil some aspects of a digital concierge service for some time, the addition of AI is the “Eureka moment” the hospitality industry has been waiting for.
