A Las Vegas hotel is putting artificial intelligence front and centre with Oto, a humanoid robot concierge that greets guests and offers local recommendations.
Las Vegas has always been a place of spectacle - and now it has arobot concierge to match.
At the Otonomous Hotel, billed as the world’s first fully AI-powered hotel, guests are greeted not by a human behind a desk, but by Oto, a chatty humanoid robot with the job title “Chief Vibes Officer.”
Oto chats with guests in the lobby, handles housekeeping, offers restaurant tips, and even gives out relationship advice.
“We call him a concierge, but we want him to be much more than a concierge,” said Philippe Ziade, founder and CEO of Otonomous Hotel. "We want him to be your best friend - understanding everything about you."
Opened last year, the Las Vegas hotel was designed around artificial intelligence. Check-in is entirely digital, with guests uploading ID via their phone and accessing their rooms using QR codes through the hotel’s app.
Not your average voice assistant
Ziade says Oto is central to that personalised experience - and is deliberately built to feel more human than familiar voice assistants.
"It’s not like Alexa, it’s not like Siri. He has a personality, he has an opinion," Ziade said. "You can tell him that you broke up with your girlfriend. He will make you feel much better."
According to Ziade, Oto knows more than 50 languages and speaks with a polite English accent. The robot was created by California-based company IntBot, which develops humanoid robots for hotels, airports, and resorts.
"So basically, Oto knows anything from booking, to housekeeping, to how you take your salad, how you take your coffee, to what issues you have in your life,” Ziade explained. "He’s everything, in real time, for everybody."
While Oto may still be confined to the lobby, he offers a glimpse of a potential future where hotels run as much on AI as on human interaction.
