It’s been a whirlwind for Pepper, the second robot developed by Aldebaran (the bipedal Nao being the first). After a prototype was unveiled in 2014, the enterprise version of Pepper launched in fall 2015 and it’s already being used in 500 companies in Japan. Most notably, it’s been so successful in SoftBank stores that there are now plans for a store run almost entirely by Pepper units for a two-week trial.
Pepper isn’t necessarily going to steal jobs from humans, however. It’s seen more as a robot that brings joy to people. At SoftBank, for example, Pepper is largely at work as a greeter. At Nescafe stores, which are often “mini-stores” inside larger department stores, it works as a brand ambassador.
“It was previously unmanned — they didn’t have a sales associate standing there,” said Steve Carlin, Aldebaran’s vice president of marketing and business development for the Americas, of the stores. “Pepper was brought in to try and engage shoppers as they came by, and stop them and tell them more about their brands. We’re seeing double-digit growth in both engagement and sales. It’s a great tool to augment the environment that the retailer is trying to create.”
Pepper demo units were on-hand at the DX3 conference in Toronto on March 2-3 in advance of the robot’s eventual launch in North America. One thing that will change in Pepper’s North American iteration is its attitude.
As Carlin explained, Japan’s love of the kawaii — or cute — factored into Pepper’s personality there. But in North America, things will change: “We can see Pepper being a little more straightforward in that sense, maybe a little more irreverent.”
But the biggest change in Pepper will be its potentially increased functionality. A partnership with IBM’s Watson means the robot will have access to several APIs, and the company will soon open up Pepper to the development community.
“We’re really excited for the potential of developers to get onto this platform and create,” Carlin said. “We certainly have some ideas, but we by no means have a lock on the good creative ideas that could go out there.”
At DX3, the Pepper units did “basic” things like dance, hug and fist bump, but with developers on board, the possibilities are theoretically endless. For example, Carlin said, Pepper could become a physical manifestation of your social media accounts. Pepper could inform you what your contacts just posted on Twitter, for instance, when asked.
It’s important to note that Pepper probably won’t be the harbinger of robots taking a slew of human jobs. Carlin said Pepper could take care of “repetitive, lower-level tasks” which will allow human staff members to have more meaningful interactions with customers.
Aldebaran is currently exploring new partnerships, so don’t be surprised if Pepper helps you hammer out your next phone contract.
