There are many who fear the rapid advances in artificial intelligence in Europe and the United States, among the scientists alerts about mass unemployment. In Singapore, however, where restrictions on foreign labor leave many companies struggling to find staff, service companies are increasingly automated solutions to overcome the shortage of workers.
Robots are being launched to work in places such as restaurants and hospitals, an initiative supported by the government to help companies survive the lack of manpower.
"The government has been restricting foreign employees. It is difficult to hire up to highly qualified people," said chief operating officer Hospital Mount Elizabeth Novena, Louis Tan. "The technology has proved one of the solutions."
The private hospital, owned by Parkway Pantai Group, appealed to Watson technology, IBM, and uses it as a "nurse" automated to monitor the vital signs of patients in their intensive care unit.
The artificial intelligence technology combines indicator information such as blood pressure and heart rate and uses an algorithm to calculate the risk that the patient's conditions worsen.
"In the past, this required integration and human interpretation," said Tan. "And now we are using analytics to help drive it."
The pilot program launched this year, improved patient safety, according to Tan. "This does not mean that nurses are exempt from responsibility. It just means that they have other help. It is more efficient and safer for patients."
In the cafe and restaurant Chilli Padi Nonya, serving Malaysian and Chinese hybrid kitchen near the National University of Singapore, the dirty dishes are collected by a waiter robot that passes between the tables asking, "Could you help me to collect what You are on your desk? "
The machine is unable to collect cups and plates alone. Customers place the dishes used in a tray the robot leads to the kitchen.
"In Singapore, it is very difficult to get the foreign labor, so it's very useful to have a robot," said Kannan Thangaraj, the restaurant manager. "Customers come back because of the robot. They like to see it."
So far, only a handful of restaurants use robots in trial period. An impediment is the cost: the company that manufactures the machines, Unitech Mechatronics, based in Singapore, sells for $ 47,000 Singapore (US $ 34,340). The government gives a subsidy of almost 70% of the cost of the robot to the restaurant you want to test it, according to the company.
Also in Singapore, the research and development center MasterCard produced the first payment application to the robot humanoid Pepper of SoftBank Robotics.
Pizza Hut Restaurants network in Asia will use the robot to pick up some of the customers' requests and process card payments. The test is scheduled for this year. The goal is to release servers for more complex customer interactions.
In this year's budget, the Singapore government announced plans to spend more than $ 450 million over three years to support the use of robots, with special attention to allow small and medium-sized enterprises able robotic products at affordable prices.
The push to innovate, however, is not well received unanimously: in a restaurant in Singapore that used a robot to collect dishes, the machine was destroyed by one of the employees.
Although there has been a wave of global growth in the use of robots, with sales of 248,000 units in 2015, according to research by the International Federation of Robotics, the service sector has not kept pace.
Robot sales to the service sector reached about 24 million units in 2014, compared with just under 22 000 sold in the previous year.
Analysts predict that the worldwide market for service robots will take off, as technical advances allow them to perform more complex tasks and work more unpredictable environments. In Japan, where robots are widely used in the industry, the government launched an initiative to expand its use in the service sector, including home and health care facilities.
Source: Valor magazine
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