The Chinese company is developing food and hospitality services managed by robots. The CEO of FlyZoo Hotel sees this new approach as an "empowerment" of the hotel industry.
The FlyZoo Hotel, located on the Alibaba campus in Hangzhou, opened its doors after two years of preparation.
This property was designed to be operated by robots and would have half as many staff as a conventional hotel. Thus, customers will be greeted by robots one metre high using facial recognition to assist them during their stay.
The Chinese group's Artificial Intelligence laboratory has developed the services provided by robots and Alibaba Cloud is in charge of data backup.
Wang Qun, CEO of FlyZoo Hotel, sees this new approach as an "empowerment" of the hotel industry, in which Alibaba has become a new player of choice. He says that his property would be 1.5 times more "efficient" than traditional hotels.
The group also plans to open restaurants and libraries on its campus without human staff in the near future, symbolizing Alibaba's desire to develop in hospitality activities.
