FRONT OF HOUSE
RISE OF ROBOTS ON RECEPTION
Scott Newland, ECS Chief Operating Officer discusses the benefits of artificial intelligence and what it means for the future of FM.
Facilities Management is evolving and the future has some big changes in store. Whilst the industry is constantly striving to provide the best service to clients, a greater focus is now being placed on creating the ideal building, whether this is a school, hospital, workplace or public facility.
Front of house is an essential service for businesses across the world as reception staff are tasked with creating a positive first impression as visitors arrive. Ensuring that front of house service delivery is as good as it can be is a top priority for facilities managers.
The conversation with clients, which focuses on improving the workplace, must continue, but we must also start stepping out of our comfort
zones to discuss how best to embrace new technology to help businesses maximise productivity.
ROBOTS, ACTROIDS
AND AI The arrival of hologram assistants in airports and multilingual ‘actroid’ robots at hotels in Japan signals the start of a new chapter in FM. Robots are capable of greeting you, checking you in, and carrying your luggage, deeming the company’s traditional hotel staff redundant. Microsoft has also recently announced that it has made a major breakthrough in its Artificial Intelligence (AI) efforts, developing a technology that can understand conversations as well as a human can.
These developments are the start of a facilities management industry that works in collaboration with technology, not against. Despite The World Economic Forum suggesting that more than 5.1 million jobs will be lost due to technological advancements over the period 2015–2020, as long as the FM industry plans for such changes, businesses can actually benefit from these technological improvements by freeing up workers to be reassigned to jobs that require a human touch.
AIinFM is an organisation that has been developed to help guide and prepare the industry for using this technology effectively and appropriately.
46 | TOMORROW’S FM
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