Skip to main content

Call him Connie, but Hilton’s new robot receptionist is powered by IBM’s Watson

You no longer have to journey to Japan for a high-tech hotel experience — now, you can have a robot as a concierge in a Hilton hotel. On Wednesday, Hilton and IBM announced a collaboration that will bring a Watson-powered robot concierge into hotel lobbies across the United States. Named “Connie” after founder Conrad Hilton, this digital diva based off the Nao robot is the first Watson-enabled automaton to enter the hospitality industry, and IBM promises that she will “inform guests on local tourist attractions, dining recommendations, and hotel features and amenities.”

While Connie won’t replace your human hotel staff, she’s meant to somewhat lighten the load, assisting with visitor requests, personalizing the guest experience, and empowering travelers with the information they need to fully plan and enjoy their trips. Taking advantage of a number of Watson technologies, Connie utilizes Watson’s Dialog, Speech to Text, Text to Speech, and Natural Language Classifier APIs to interact with guests in as natural a way as possible. And thanks to its WayBlazer integration, the robot is also able to provide local dining recommendations, tourist attractions, and more.

Like any good assistant, Connie learns through experience — the more she’s able to interact with guests, the better advice she’s able to give.

“We’re focused on reimagining the entire travel experience to make it smarter, easier, and more enjoyable for guests,” said Jonathan Wilson, Hilton Worldwide’s vice president of product innovation and brand services, in a related statement. “By tapping into innovative partners like IBM Watson, we’re wowing our guests in the most unpredictable ways.”

For its part, IBM notes that Connie is a new foray into human-machine interaction. Rob High, IBM fellow and vice president and chief technology officer of IBM Watson, said, “Watson helps Connie understand and respond naturally to the needs and interests of Hilton’s guests — which is an experience that’s particularly powerful in a hospitality setting, where it can lead to deeper guest engagement.”

So if you’re interested in checking Connie out, head over to the Hilton McLean in Virginia, and see for yourself what a robot concierge can do for you.

Editors' Recommendations

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
IBM Watson's AI XPrize contest offers 147 teams a shot at $5 million in prizes
ibm xprize ai 5 million prize pool xprizeai

Once again the XPrize Foundation is offering a massive prize for those willing to innovate at the cutting edge of AI development. The IBM Watson AI XPrize is offering 147 teams the chance to earn a piece of a $5 million fund with their projects and ideas over the next three years.

The Xprize Foundation has helped encourage innovation in a variety of fields over the past two decades, giving inventors and engineers a real shot of monetizing amazing ideas and encouraging them to develop them. It's currently running a number of competitions offering tens of millions of dollars for subjects as diverse as lunar robotics, carbon capture and literacy education. The latest initiative though, is for AI.

Read more
IBM and The Weather Company's new tech delivers alerts with no cell network
ibm weather company mesh network alerts 3 flood alert

Having a wealth of up-to-the-minute climate data at our fingertips is something most of us take for granted. Thanks to a reliable cell connection, our smartphones, and the work of hundreds of meteorologists and climatologists around the globe, keeping abreast of an incoming storm isn't so much a matter of how, but how quickly. Unfortunately, though, that isn't the case for everyone.

In developing countries, cellular connectivity is congested, intermittent, and in the worst cases inaccessible. That's why IBM, in collaboration with developers at The Weather Company, introduced Mesh Network Alerts, a new technology that provides a peer-to-peer means of facilitating communications between residents of underserved nations.

Read more
IBM and BMW want to make Watson your own personal back-seat driver
BMW Remote Controlled Parking

You're about to get a new passenger in your BMW, and his name is Watson.

On Thursday, the German automaker announced a new collaboration with IBM, in which the two companies will "work together to explore the role of Watson cognitive computing in personalizing the driving experience and creating more intuitive driver support systems for cars of the future." So even if you're not the smartest driver in the garage, BMW and IBM want to help.

Read more