Guests talk to the robot via voice command, touch and hand gesture, and its responses are driven by AliGenie, the software that powers Alibaba A.I. Labs’ smart speaker, Tmall Genie

Alibaba A.I. Labs, the consumer-oriented AI products development unit of the Chinese e-commerce giant, has announced that it is launching service robots for the hospitality sector, starting in October.

The announcement was made at “The Computing Conference 2018”, which is scheduled for four days till September 22 in Hangzhou, China, the site of Alibaba’s headquarters.

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Hotels have until now depended entirely on human labor. Alibaba’s service robot demonstrates what guests can expect at hotels in the future — from delivering meals to taking laundry to guests. Guests talk to the robot via voice command, touch and hand gesture, and its responses are driven by AliGenie, the software that powers Alibaba A.I. Labs’ smart speaker, Tmall Genie.

“We are excited by this tremendous development that is helping us bridge the gap between guest needs and the response time that they expect. Alibaba A.I. Labs’ robot is the next step in the evolution towards smart hotels. In addition, it is solving pain points in the hotel sector, such as enhancing service efficiency, with our leading AI technologies,” said Lijuan Chen, General Manager of Alibaba A.I. Labs. “The robot will be the ultimate assistant for hotel guests who want everything quickly and conveniently at their fingertips.”

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