We already have robots serving us in different industries: they build our cars, entertain the family, and defuse bombs. A new bot has emerged from IBM’s labs as a result of collaboration with Hilton Worldwide—the first Watson-enabled robot concierge in the hospitality industry, Connie. Connie, named for Hilton’s founder Conrad Hilton, represents the first time IBM has developed a Watson-enabled robot for the hospitality sector. The automaton can already be found in the Hilton McLean hotel in Virginia, where it will work with Hilton’s team members as a regular concierge, answering questions about nearby restaurants, tourist attractions, and hotel information. Connie will not be able to check guests in to the hotel. The 23-inch wonder (that’s 58 centimeters) has as physical support Nao, a French-made android (Aldebaran) that has become the first platform used for educational and customer care tasks, partly because its relative affordability—approximately $9,000. Connie is more about brains than looks though as its brain is based on IBM’s flagship AI program Watson, the Jeopardy!-winning system engineered to understand people’s questions and answer them. Connie’s brain uses a combination of Watson APIs, including Dialog, Speech to Text, Text to Speech, Text to Speech and Natural Language Classifier, enabling it to greet guests upon arrival, and to answer questions about the hotel’s amenities, services and hours of operation. The information on local attractions and interesting sites is actually channeled from the travel platform WayBlazer’s database, also an IBM partners. What’s more interesting is how Connie improves itself through interactions with human customers, learning how to fine-tune its recommendations. “This project with Hilton and WayBlazer represents an important shift in human-machine interaction, enabled by the embodiment of Watson’s cognitive computing,” said Rob High, IBM fellow and vice president and chief technology officer for IBM Watson....

In a world where getting around a foreign city is unimaginable without Google Maps, the hospitality industry has no other option than staying ahead of the curve when it comes to technology. The top hospitality players are aggressively expanding new ways to enhance guest experience with dedicated apps, software and even robots. Here are four of the technologies providing a whole new dimension to business and pleasure travel.   Mobile Room Access is the hot new trend in the hospitality industry. Using a dedicated, hotel-branded app, guests simply swiping their mobile device across a specialized keypad to access their room. Some hotels have already rolled out mobile key cards, among them Starwood Hotels. Its dedicated Bluetooth-enabled SPG Keyless technology was launched in early November 2015 at its W, Aloft and Element brands, numbering close to 150 hotels totaling 30,000 rooms. Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) members can download the app from the App Store or Google Play and register their device. When a guest’s upcoming stay is eligible for SPG Keyless, the guest receives a push notification and by opening the app is able to access the room by swiping it across a keyless pad. The Cromwell, the only standalone boutique hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, became the first hotel in Sin City to offer the trendy technology. Hilton Worldwide will start offering Hilton HHonors members mobile room keys at four of its brands starting early 2015 and will deploy the technology across 11 brands globally.   Booking via Instagram. Courtesy of Conrad Hotels and Resorts, travelers can use the ‘gram not only to post enviable photos of their vacations, but also book a stay at one of its destinations. Guests simply click on an Instagram photo and via Curalate’s Like2Buy technology are redirected...