July 2016 - Published in HOTELS - While waiter robots have debuted with mixed results in Asia, small fleets of robotic butlers and concierges are enjoying successful test drives at several hotel companies in the United States. So how concerned should hotel employees be about the concept of computerized colleagues? In a service environment, could robots replace human workers entirely, or are they better deployed as an addition to the team, with the goal of improving productivity and enhancing the guest experience? For perspective from the Artificial Intellegence (AI) side, I sat down with an unusually philosophical Service Industry Droid who asked that we call him SID.
