Smiling robots are making their way into the hospitality and health care sectors, which were thought to be the last safe-haven for human work. Should we welcome them?
Debates on automation often point to jobs that require interpersonal skills as the last safe haven for humans: The robots will take over factory floors and Artificial Intelligence will dominate programming and management; we will retreat into hospitality and health care to assist our fellow humans.
. Pushing a heavy trolley loaded with clean towels down interminable hotel corridors, for example. Or carrying medical equipment, medicines or blood samples from one hospital room to another. . Singapore’s hospitality sector enjoys fast-growing demand from business travel and tourism; but Singapore’s labor supply lags behind, as the population is increasingly well-educated and aging. Japan faces a similar challenge. Immigration can help address the labor shortage, but it brings other economic and social challenges.
The robots connect to the network via wi-fi, with a 4G cellular backup. They will immediately stop if they encounter an unexpected obstacle; for safety reasons, they then have limited leeway for initiative…they wait for the obstacle to disappear, but if it does not, they ask for human help.
What do the human workers do with the extra time freed up by the robots’ help? Hiren Mowji notes that in the hospitality business “there are never enough hours in a day” for all the work required of the housekeeping staff. They will now be able to provide extra care to make sure every aspect of the guests’ experience measures up to expectations, from making sure each room is perfectly set up to meeting those customer requests that require more thoughtful attention.
So far, the Asian market is proving to be the fastest adopter for Techmetics’ technology. In part this reflects the aging demographics and in part the greater cultural readiness to embrace robotics, as in the cases of Japan and Singapore.
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