Pizza Hut has employed a robot waiter | Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight | Scoop.it

Mastercard has announced that it is powering the first commercial application of SoftBank’s humanoid robot Pepper, creating a service in Pizza Hut restaurants in Asia.


The service will have Mastercard’s digital payment service MasterPass as the core and Pizza Hut, the first brand to come on board to test the service, aims to trial Pepper over the next few months with the goal for it to be live in-store in Asian restaurants by the end of 2016.


Tobias Puehse, vice president, innovation management, digital payments and labs at MasterCard, said: “Consumers have come to expect personalized service, customized offers and simple and seamless processes both in-store and online. The app’s goal is to provide consumers with more memorable and personalized shopping experience beyond today’s self-serve machines and kiosks, by combining Pepper’s intelligence with a secure digital payment experience via MasterPass.


”Pepper will be programmed to launch on greeting, or when activated via a QR code or once the MasterPass has been activated within the app. Pepper will give personalised offers and suggestions, as well as helping with checking out and paying....