Eurostar yesterday welcomed Pepper, the first robot in the UK travel industry, to its St Pancras team.
The high-speed rail operator has introduced the interactive humanoid robot to offer customers, particularly families and children, a fun new way to enquire about their journey before departure.
Pepper, designed by SoftBank Robotics, is the first robot that can recognise principal human emotions and adapt her own behaviour accordingly. Eurostar has recruited the robot to entertain and help customers, and in partnership with Robots of London she can respond to questions or even pose for a selfie on request.
Located in the departure lounge at London St. Pancras, Pepper will interact with passengers using an inbuilt tablet, where travellers will find an interactive station map, information about the on board experience, and many destination tips for Paris, Brussels, Lille and Amsterdam.
Perrine Allain, head of digital at the rail company, said: ?We are always looking for new ways to innovate, and explore technologies that can help enhance the overall customer experience. Pepper offers a fun way for customers to find out more about their journey and destination, and we look forward to hearing the feedback from our customers so that we can continue to improve their experience.?
Pepper will be located at St. Pancras International for the rest of this year, with plans to re-locate to one of the operator's other locations in 2019.
For more information, visit www.eurostar.com
