HOTELS & HOSPITALITY
COBOTICS: A REVOLUTION IN HOSPITALITY
By cautiously and methodically integrating robots and other AI-based technologies into their operations, facilities service providers can deliver an overall better service, explains Stefano Bensi, General Manager at SoftBank Robotics EMEA.
Trading conditions in hospitality remain tough. A recent survey by the British Chambers of Commerce found that 79% of hospitality businesses are experiencing hiring difficulties, making it the worst hit sector in the UK. And although inflation is expected to ease in the coming months, the combination of these two factors has left hotels and restaurants with very little margin for error.
In this context, it’s easy to see how introducing robotics across key service lines, including cleaning and food, can help hospitality providers. Tabloids are keen to stress the existential threat that developing technologies such as robots and AI pose to jobs, and conventional wisdom has it that service-based work will be the first to go. But there is increasingly strong evidence suggesting this assumption is wrong. Research by job site Indeed, which asked generative AI tool ChatGPT to analyse its ability to perform work spanning 2,600 different skillsets, revealed that white collar workers, such as software engineers, lawyers, accountants, journalists, and bankers, are facing the most immediate threat. The report noted that the ‘irreplaceable’ jobs require human interactions, such as ‘empathy, intuition and manual dexterity’.
While generative AI and robotics are not directly comparable, using AI in different ways, these findings highlight something important about modern facilities services and how technology is helping to transform the industry. Today, customers of facilities services expect their FM teams or providers not just to deliver services but also drive and shape the guest / employee experience in a dynamic way. These expectations are putting pressure on staff such as cleaners and restaurant teams to be more customer-facing as well as demonstrate the difference they make.
In this sense, robotics provides support in two crucial ways. Firstly, the technology performs the mundane, labour-intensive, and time-consuming tasks. An autonomous vacuum sweeper robot will take care of large floor surface areas, such as the corridors of a hotel. A tray-delivery robot in a restaurant can ferry trays of food back and forth from tables during a busy service. This functionality can help minimise potential physical and mental health issues by improving the quality of work facilities staff do. However, it also leaves teams with more time to do the tasks that enhance the guest experience, such as interacting with customers or responding quickly to service issues that arise in the moment, allowing them to showcase empathy, intuition, and those other human- centric skills.
What’s more, introducing robots can help upskill facilities staff by getting them comfortable with technology. Any modern autonomous service robot worth its salt provides measurable proof of performance with in-built software- as-a-service capability that captures data and insights. This is invaluable for facilities teams who are tasked with constantly improving service levels. It also helps future- proof their jobs, as they move into new roles thereafter.
Despite these benefits, it’s of course crucial that facilities service providers integrate robots and other AI-based technologies into their operations cautiously and methodically. The key is to ease any fears by communicating their benefits from the outset. Users need to explain how autonomous robots can help deliver a better service by saving time, improving the quality of work and using data. The results will speak for themselves.
www.softbankrobotics.com
50 | TOMORROW’S FM
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