How Korean telecom companies are putting AI platforms to work in hotels
SK Telecom and KT have installed artificial intelligence assisted services which use voice recognition systems in two hotels
Telecom companies are using hotels as “test beds” for their artificial intelligence (AI) assisted services, to competitively offer convenient functions to guests.
SK Telecom said that it had installed its NUGU AI platform in 44 rooms of the Vista Walkerhill Hotel in eastern Seoul.
The nation’s top mobile carrier will install the platform in all rooms of the hotel within the third quarter.
The NUGU platform enables guests to control lighting, curtains and temperature through voice commands, the firm said.
Guests can also easily find checkout and breakfast times as well as other information about hotel facilities through voice commands.
For example, when a guest asks, “Where do I get on a shuttle bus?” NUGU answers: “You can get on a shuttle bus at a station opposite the hotel. The bus operates every 10 minutes from 6 in the morning to 11.20 at night.”
Since the release of the NUGU platform in September 2016, the firm has released about 40 kinds of services using the platform.
“Applying the NUGU platform to the Vista Walkerhill Hotel is expected to become an opportunity to expand our AI services to business-to-business hotel service areas,” said Park Myung-soon, who leads SK Telecom’s AI business unit. “SK Telecom will open the source code of the AI platform so that anyone can easily understand and use it. We will lead the popularisation of AI.”