In conjunction with the Google Cloud AI Asia event taking place in Singapore this week, we had the opportunity to hear from two companies in the country about how they are leveraging a variety of AI technology development services that can be used for internal company systems as well as new technologies that benefit customers and consumers.
First up is Frasers Hospitality, a company known for its many hotel properties in many locations around the world, including our hotel location for this event, Capri by Fraser China Square.
We were given a presentation by the company’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Ian Loe, on how they have used Google Cloud services and Google’s AI capabilities to not only develop internal systems for the hotels under Frasers Hospitality’s supervision, but to introduce a cloud and digital strategy that can be leveraged across all of their hotel locations worldwide.
Frasers Hospitality has 120 hotels in 21 countries worldwide, and this new digital and cloud strategy has enabled the company to align standard operating procedures across all of these hotels.
Initially, they developed an application that allowed them to upload photos and videos on various aspects of hotel maintenance, hotel service improvements and employee governance.
These uploaded videos and photos were then processed into a guide format that was easy to understand for all employees at the hotels. Depending on the location of the hotel, these guides could be translated into local languages, or the process of creating these guides could be repeated in a context that would make the tasks of the employees at that location easier.
These guides could be used to teach employees how the hotel welcomes guests, to what needs to be done to repair or replace any equipment in the guest room.
Ian Loe said that after the application was completed, it took Frasers Hospitality just six weeks to introduce an SOP and a business process model and notation (BPNM) for their hotels, while they developed other features related to employee training videos and ways to maintain hotel equipment.
He also said that Google Cloud was chosen as the foundation for the development of this application because it is the only cloud and artificial intelligence service that comes with a full-service offering, including cloud hardware, full AI software and development services, and a comprehensive infrastructure security system.
Gill Capital is a Singaporean investment firm that is also known for bringing popular consumer brands such as H&M, Decathlon, Candylicious and others to the country.
The company is currently seen developing a chatbot service for fashion brand H&M in Thailand and Indonesia. We were given the opportunity to see the beta test for this service which uses Google’s AI services Gemini, Big Query, Vertex AI and Cloud Run as the main way for H&M customers to ask various types of questions.
When users log into their H&M account, users can directly ask various types of questions about the clothes offered through the company’s online store.
For now, the chatbot can provide clothing suggestions for subjective questions such as “suggest summer clothes”, “suggest sportswear”, and “list Spider-Man-themed clothes”, among others.
Clothing suggestions will be listed directly on the chatbot, and customers can then click on the clothing link to purchase it or add it to their shopping cart.
Using Google Translate’s built-in translation function, the chatbot will also be able to understand context in other languages such as Thai and Indonesian, although it uses a more casual style of language.
Gill Capital says the chatbot system is still in the development and testing phase to add more additional features, such as listing clothes based on price, reading users’ buying habits and ways to introduce clothing promotions more easily through the chatbot.
It can also answer questions about nearby H&M locations and the company’s return and sustainability policies.
It will also be used by H&M store managers, where when it is launched, it can give them an easy way to see daily, weekly, and monthly sales figures, and generate sales reports quickly and easily.
Managers will also have the ability to see which clothes are selling faster than others, and can prepare to replenish stock if necessary.
As previously stated, GIll Capital will introduce this chatbot to the Thai and Indonesian markets first, around the end of this year. H&M in Malaysia operates under the H&M Group itself, and therefore is not included in the use of this AI chatbot system.