Hotel housekeepers face a new challenge: automation. A new machine threatens to render these workers redundant.
Could AI-Powered Robotic Automation Render Hotel Housekeepers Redundant?
A new machine appears to perform the functions of a hotel maid with speed and precision:
The robot is called Peanut and comes equipped with a cloth for cleaning various surfaces. This robot is very agile and can reach hard-to-reach places.
Peanut navigates rooms independently, self-monitors, and collects data 24/7, operating without constant human supervision.
Peanut runs a transformer-based AI model. Cleaning for hotels, corporate buildings, and commercial outlets is made simple and available 24/7 (excluding charging).
Take a look:
View this post on Instagram
(and based on the images, it appears that “Peanut” has already been placed at a Sheraton hotel in somewhere tropical…)
Hotels are typically a low-margin business and I can see hotel management companies grinning like a Cheshire cat over the possibility of lowering labor costs at their properties.
Across the economy, automation threatens to disrupt careers ranging from the menial to the professional. Will AI-powered robots perform surgery? Write legal briefs? Build homes? Drive taxis? Program software?
While I tend to think progress toward that utopia (dystopia) will be slower than we might expect, we already see fast food workers replaced by kiosks and even when you visit airport lounges, you now see robotic carts zooming around the lounge collecting dirty cups and dishes.
AI may be more of a tool than a human replacement now, but for how long?
In the case of hotel housekeeping, perhaps sooner than we think…
image: @evovling.AI / Instagram
Gross! Looks to me like Peanut cleans everything in the whole room with the same rag that it uses to clean the toilet.
How does this thing work in non standard cleaning situations?
Is this thing going to know to clean the walls after a guy like chi hsaun stays in a rooms and spreads feces all over the walls like his friends did at the capital on J6?
When I watched the video I am reminded of a Spirit gate brawl. It just beats the dog snot out of surfaces. Scary
AI is not perfect. I had several interviews last week for a job opening and it was very obvious which resumé had been AI generated (and the interview reinforced that observation). As to cleaning, I agree with Michael. It seems the same cloth is being use for floors, commodes and dining tables. I would imagine these are not inexpensive machines and a hotel would require multiple units.
Not just that, but it won’t make beds.
I’m chuckling because I had a similar discussion back early in my career in the 1980’s when we chuckled at the tech support team that SPECTRE must have required in James Bond. Those automatic doors and shark moat drawbridges don’t fix themselves, you know. If you go to the store for self-checkout, you probably see many of the kiosks not working or malfunctioning often.
Or heck, read up about the infamous McD’s ice cream and cappuccino machines breaking down all the time costing McD’s franchises billions. Yes, THAT is why you can’t get a latte at McD’s (not that I’d see any of you there!).
For all the squealing over paying some low skilled person $20/hour for their literal time, that’s the most economical “machine” to perform labor ever invented. For $200/day, it can perform a variety of tasks that no $20,000 robot could dream to perform: Change beds, vacuum floors, clean bathrooms, inspect the room for damage or stolen property, restock the room with amenities, and do it all before check-in at 4PM.