Connie: a Watson-powered guide on a NAO body at Hilton’s front desk
Connie was a guide robot that Hilton and IBM tested at the Hilton McLean in Virginia in March 2016. We could not confirm whether it stayed in use after the test.
Timeline
- 2016.03Unveiled, pilotHilton McLean, Virginia
- 2016Called a testAbout a month in
- After 2016No later newsNo end or expansion reported
A Watson conversation on a NAO body
Connie was a concierge robot that Hilton Worldwide and IBM announced in March 2016. It was named after Hilton’s founder, Conrad Hilton. Its body was a 23-inch NAO made by Aldebaran, a SoftBank company, and its conversation ran on IBM Watson’s Dialog, Speech to Text, Text to Speech and Natural Language Classifier APIs. Travel knowledge came from WayBlazer, a travel company built on Watson. Beside the front desk at the Hilton McLean in Virginia, it greeted guests and answered questions about hotel services, nearby attractions and restaurants. The hotel received a log of guests’ questions and Connie’s answers.
About a month in, Hilton called it a trial
When Fortune reported on it, Connie had been at its post for less than a month. Hilton’s Jim Holthouser called it a trial. Hilton had not yet decided how to measure its effect, and he said setting it up takes time. Connie could not check guests in. The Robot Report said check-in was the goal if the trial went well. According to Smart Meetings, Hilton had set no end date for the pilot and had not decided whether to add Connie at other properties. Fortune quoted Holthouser as saying guests would not see it popping up at Hilton properties anytime in the near future.
Beside the staff, not in their place
Hilton described Connie as working alongside team members. Hilton’s Jonathan Wilson said guests “view the experience as an added bonus -- almost like entertainment.” That is an executive’s account, and we found no separate survey of guests. Analyst Natalie Petouhoff said that without trying it herself she could not say how effective it was beyond its novelty. She also noted that earlier service avatars failed because people abandoned the interaction.
A pilot with no agreed measure of success
Connie was not a new robot. It was an off-the-shelf NAO body with a conversation system added. What this record can confirm is that the test took place. The hotel had not set a yardstick for success, and we found no published result. Unlike Henn na Hotel, where robots took on staff roles, Connie was limited to answering questions beside the staff.
Once the novelty of talking to it wears off, what gives guests a reason to keep asking this robot?
What we haven’t confirmed
- When the pilot ended, or whether it continued
- How many guests actually asked it questions, and any evaluation Hilton made
- Whether it spread to other hotels (Digital Trends wrote that it would be placed in hotel lobbies across the United States, while Fortune and Smart Meetings reported that this was undecided)
- The cost of building Connie
Sources
- Hilton, “Hilton and IBM Pilot ‘Connie,’ The World’s First Watson-Enabled Hotel Concierge,” 9 March 2016 (company material)
- InformationWeek, “IBM Watson Powers Hilton Robot Concierge,” 10 March 2016
- Computerworld, “Meet Connie, Hilton’s smart robot concierge,” 9 March 2016
- The Christian Science Monitor, “Hilton Hotels tries out a robot concierge,” 9 March 2016
- The Robot Report, “Nao Robot Won’t be a Hotel Concierge for Long,” 11 March 2016
- Fortune, “This Robot Aims to Improve Your Hotel Stay,” 9 March 2016
- Inverse, “Bye Lobby Boy, Hello Connie: IBM Watson Goes Inside This Humanoid Robot Concierge,” 10 March 2016
- Constellation Research, “IBM, Hilton Pilot ‘Connie,’ a Watson-Powered Hotel Concierge Robot: What It Means,” 9 March 2016
- Smart Meetings, “Tiny Robot Concierge Stands Tall” (original date shown as 10 March 2016)
- Digital Trends, “Call him Connie, but Hilton’s new robot receptionist is powered by IBM’s Watson,” 9 March 2016