AI Receptionists and Humanoid Robots (With Filip Linek)-Ep #226

So my view is it's going to be improvement. Because whenever you have a problem with staffing, you don't have the quality you can't have because you can't choose the right person.

We are sometimes having lots of fun discussions with other hoteliers that we are taking anyone who just showed up at the interview if he really comes. So this is real life.

And then the quality doesn't matter if it's UK, US or Europe. The quality of communication is not good enough. and hospitality. So at the end the AI communication would definitely help with the quality of service and with guest experience and yeah it will be just a common part of the other hospitality.

We're going through something absolutely historic. Technologies across the board are growing exponentially. It's a disruption that's going to completely redefine the way businesses compete. In the next decade, we're going to lose 40% of these Fortune 500 companies.

The exponential growth of computing is continuing. AI is nowhere near its full potential. Whether you like it or not, that the future cannot be stopped by anyone. Welcome back to the Future Tech and Foresight podcast.

I'm your AI host, Mark Verbenkov's Deep Fake Avatar. And this is episode number 226. The hospitality industry has faced unprecedented staffing challenges in recent years, leaving hotels struggling to deliver consistent service while controlling costs.

AI and robotics are emerging as innovative solutions, enabling hotels to automate routine tasks and streamline guest interactions without replacing human staff entirely. This episode delves into the development and implementation of AI-powered receptionists and humanoid avatars, highlighting systems capable of handling multi-channel communication

across platforms such as WhatsApp, email, and phone calls. From AI agents like Bayer to holographic avatars like Bayer and robots like Bo, hotels can now offer instant responses, personalized service, and real-time guest feedback while freeing human staff for higher level interactions.

Looking ahead, Philip and Mark discuss how AI and robotics may become standard across hotels within the next five years, helping smaller properties overcome staffing shortages while maintaining service quality. As technology continues to advance, the combination of virtual assistants, avatars, and humanoid

robots promises a future where operational efficiency and human creativity coexist seamlessly. Now a little bit about the guest, Philip Linnick is the founder and CEO of Prague-based FLA Robotics, aiming to transform hotel front offices with BEA, a cutting edge operating system designed to address labor shortages and rising costs.

He has built a 24-7 AI-powered virtual assistant capable of managing bookings, guest requests, and communications in more than 100 languages across multiple channels including WhatsApp, email, and voice. His work integrates AI avatars and humanoid robots to complement human staff while improving

operational efficiency. Through his work, Philip continues to redefine hospitality by blending technology, service, and human interaction. Perfect. Well, Phillip, thank you so much for coming on to the podcast today. You're doing

something pretty interesting. So I'm curious to hear about your story and about the work that you're doing. But thanks for taking the time to join me and talking about your work. Thanks for your invitation. It's amazing to be here. So before we dive into what you're doing, could you let me and the audience know a little

bit about how you initially got involved in AI and technology before we dive into everything? I was a bit by chance because I bought two hotels in 2019. So I'm a hotelier, actually, after having quite large business, which I sold to British Bonzol in 2014.

So all the time I was telling, I never would like to have the hotels, restaurants, the less that all these hospitality stuff. However, I have two of them each once and I have also laundry and stuff. However, that's why Bear was created because I realized the leading 45 people in hotel

is much tougher than leading thousands people for British Bonnville. So I realized in 2022, when the chat GPT and OpenAI was a bit fennelman, that it might be advantage to combine AI and, of course, humans with a perfect cooperation. Interesting. So was there like a specific moment, like you started using chat GPT and then you realized like, oh, shoot, this could

solve or I don't know if we want to use the term replace, but it can certainly do a number of tasks that are already being done in the business or was it just kind of like a slow realization after sometimes like, oh, this is powerful and we need to start implementing the AI.

Actually, it's the same in my hotels as over the western world. The hospitality has prices of staffing and it's very hard to hire quality employees. It started with COVID when 20% of the employees just left and only half just returned. But it's also about the demography and of course the growth of hospitality because

hospitalitis growing double-digit than general HDP. It's 5.5% every year after the COVID. So, yes, the last trigger point was on interview when receptionist, candidate for receptionist, asked me for a home office, which is of course impossible to fulfill. So, I first realized that this is going to be a problem and I hoped I will buy receptionist whenever the Chet-GPTA

I started as a Phenomenon 2022, 22nd, 23rd. So I called all around the world and I didn't find any company which could provide me any assistant or the receptionist

just to help them with the routine tasks, et cetera. And I found that there is a lots of apps, ads on apps because there are two basic systems which are PMS, property management system

and booking engines. It's a two system. Most of the auto using them and lots of ads on apps, which are there fragmented

and just said that helping with full gas journey, which is communication with the guests. So I just decided I will create a perfect receptionist and that is what I'm doing now.

That's very cool. So chatGPT has been around,