The Post Publishing – March 9, 2016 – TOKYO — The humanoid robot Pepper will start offering tailored customer services at retail shops in Japan by using online data analysis.
SoftBank Robotics Corp, Pepper’s developer, will start selling the next-generation service this fall with Microsoft Japan Co, the companies said Tuesday as part of their collaboration in cloud robotics. They did not reveal the price.
Connected to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, Pepper, capable of recognising faces and reading emotions, will cater to the needs of individual customers and recommend products based on analysis of data online, such as customer behaviour and sales.
Electronic devices, including Microsoft’s Surface Hub and Surface tablet, will also be used to enable customers to see information on their screens and purchase items.
SoftBank Robotics President Fumihide Tomizawa expressed hope that the new service will prove useful at a time of labour shortages in the retail industry and an increase in foreign visitors to Japan.
“We hope it will provide one future format for the retailing industry,” Tomizawa told reporters.
SoftBank Robotics and Microsoft said they plan to enable Pepper to serve customers in foreign languages but did not give further details.