Looking for a job? Nestlé is hiring but there’s a catch: you have to be a robot.
The company has announced plans to employ 1,000 robots in the Nestlé stores across Japan. Softbank’s humanoid robot Pepper will be the first batch of robot clerks and will reportedly work at outlets that sell coffee capsules and home espresso machines.
Nestlé Japan spokeswoman Miki Kano said, “From December, they will start selling coffee machines for us at big retail stores. We are sure that our customers will enjoy shopping and being entertained by robots.”
Pepper has been tested over the past few months at Softbank’s outlets with extremely positive responses from customers.
The robot has been both helpful and a great marketing tool, interacting with customers and collecting customer opinions.
SoftBank president Masayoshi Son said Pepper it as an “emotional” robot that understands “70 to 80 percent of spontaneous conversations”.
It will be interesting to see how the robot clerks perform for Nestlé in Japan because, if successful, we could see a growing trend regarding robot employees.
