This month in tech news, Google demonstrated their new experimental A.I. 

This month in tech news, Google demonstrated their new experimental A.I. system “Duplex”, during their annual developer conference. This robotic assistant mimics human interaction in a way we have never seen before. The robot Duplex, uses affirmations and natural speech pattern to sound just like a human being. Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai revealed this new advancement that you quite literally have to see, to believe. Could Duplex change hospitality in the way we reserve tables and hotel rooms or the way we book appointments?

The demonstration showcased two examples, one where a salon appointment is scheduled and one where a table is reserved in a restaurant. We see the system recognise human nuances and work around confusing conversation. The robot understands that the restaurant does not reserve tables on a particular day, for a party that big. It works around this and ends the conversation fluidly. Pauses and filler words are used such as “umm” and “hmm” to sound even more human like. Duplex can only carry out conversations in a few settings so far. It cannot have a general conversation.

It’s quite clear the new system could make and cancel reservations, quite easily. It is uncertain how far it could be taken for a restaurant to use Duplex as an answering booking system. What if a customer had dietary requirements or a complicated question about the soundscape in the restaurant?

Many viewers were afraid they wouldn’t be able to tell that Duplex is a machine. Pichai stated that when this technology is released, it will have full disclosure. Whoever is on the other end of the call will know that they are speaking to Duplex.

The taxation department already use speech recognition to identify callers – it’s a big scary world we are racing in to.

Ideally, many businesses could use this technology as a front of house booking system to move focus onto overall customer experience. Duplex is not quite there yet to completely replace all human interactions in hospitality. As there are always faults and fears in new technology, I don’t think many hospitality companies will be adopting it tomorrow!