Service robots in the hospitality industry: The case of Henn-na hotel, Japan

Abstract

Services are changing at an impressive pace boosted by the technological advances felt in Robotics, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) that have uncovered new research opportunities. Our objective is to contribute to the literature by exploring the pros and cons of the use of service robots in the hospitality industry and to practice, by presenting the architectural and technological characteristics of a fully automated plant based on a relevant case. To achieve such goal, this article uses a systematic literature review to assess the state-of-the-art, characterize the unit of analysis, and find new avenues for further research. The results indicate that, in high customer contact settings, service robots tend to outperform humans when performing standardized tasks, because of their mechanical and analytical nature. Evidence also shows that, in some cases, service robots have not yet achieved the desired technological maturity to proficiently replace humans. In other words, the technology is not quite there yet, but this does not contradict the fact that new robot technologies, enabled by AI, will be able to replace the employees’ empathetic intelligence. In practical terms, organizations are facing challenges where they have to decide whether service robots are capable of completely replacing human labor or if they should rather invest in balanced options, such as human-robot systems, that seem to be a much more rational choice today.