KT forges partnership with Shinsegae's hotel franchise to offer autonomous robot butler service

SEOUL -- South Korea's biggest telecom company KT has forged a partnership with a top hotel franchise to provide an automated robot butler service. Customers can pick up room service delivered by serving robots at the doorstep of their rooms.

KT said in a statement on December 17 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Shinsegae Chosun Hotel, a hotel franchise of Shinsegae Group, to deploy hotelier robots at two new hotels including one in Gangnam, the heart of Seoul's finance and fashion, and the other in Pangyo, a southern satellite town.

When customers order room service via a smartphone app, robot butlers will deliver food and amenities from a pickup point and use elevators. 

"We hope that KT's new artificial intelligence technology will bring digital innovation to Shinsegae Chosun Hotel," a KT official was quoted as saying. "Through this MOU, we plan to upgrade digital services offered at our new hotels so that we can provide a differentiated service and convenience to our customers," said Shinsegae.

Autonomous robots that greet customers and deliver food have been demonstrated in South Korea. KT commercialized a robot concierge at Novotel Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun Hotels & Residences in Seoul in December 2019. "N bot" using KT's AI voice assistant platform supports four languages -- Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese.