Hospitality Needs to Double Down on the Human Touch

The Wall Street Journal recently documented Hilton’s research and development efforts with Connie, a two-foot tall robotic concierge, stationed at the concierge desk. IBM’s Watson powers the responses, which include cursory information about the hotel’s offerings and ostensibly more as it learns and crunches more data. The Aloft, in Cupertino, does something similar with their Botlr, a servant on wheels delivering the toothbrush you forgot to your door. Andaz had an ill-fated experiment where casually dressed staff would check you in on a tablet with no actual check-in desk. Of course, some of these shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Af