Friday, February 12, 2016

Robots in hospitality


Session 4 - Bring in the robots


Roughly four weeks into the semester, we have completed the first module. That module focused on developing an understanding of the problems and opportunities within the hospitality industry. The course has built a framework that began with that understanding and now transitions to ideas.

So cue the robots. Thanks to a great relationship I have with UNLV's state of the art Drones and Autonomous Systems Lab (DASL), I was able to schedule the entire class session at their lab. My students were immersed in robotics and drone technology. Which in turn allowed me to frame the technology as an innovation to be applied to hospitality. Technology aimed at basic research is a noble academic pursuit but technology applied to solve a problem in an industry as large and diverse as hospitality is profit. 

Imagine robots not simply as the animatronic entertainment piece but as functional elements in the service delivery process. Assisting humans in the performance of their duties or perhaps freeing humans from the more mundane and repetitive roles and allowing that human resource to enhance the guest experience through more interaction. Freeing human capital to elevate guest facing services. Now that is an innovation with huge implications to profit. 


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