JLL tasks robotic JiLL as receptionist at new Sydney office

Property services firm JLL is starting a pilot project at its newest Sydney office, 50 Carrington Street, using a humanoid robot as receptionist.

The 57 cm high robot, named JiLL, will greet and support staff, visitors and couriers with a range of front of house tasks, including check-in for meetings, providing directions, contacting hosts and recording and reporting technology or building maintenance issues.

Phil Clark, JLL’s head of business transformation said JiLL will work as part of the WorkSmart Admin Team but will be the sole ‘front of house’ face.

"This allows JiLL’s human colleagues to support the business operations and to focus on more tactical activity," he said.

"JiLL works in conjunction with a tablet based visitor management system.

"She has in-built facial recognition software to enable her to respond differently to team members than to external visitors.

“This is really about automating those tasks such as greeting guests, providing directions, and assisting staff with administrative tasks in the workplace. JiLL’s duties will continue to grow over the coming months."

Chris Hunt, JLL’s Australasian Head of Integrated Facilities Management (IFM) said the pilot of robotics has started with the IFM team in Australia.

"The addition of JiLL to our Carrington Street office will enable our technology innovation team to monitor how clients and visitors respond to robots and the current levels of technology.   

“We are assessing the opportunities for artificial intelligence in the workplace. We see a future for robots in the workplace and organisations will need to understand what robots can offer for the future workplace and they will need a strategy to integrate humans and robots.  We are taking our first step in this journey by JiLL joining the JLL team.

“This is a trend that is developing fast and is something our clients will need to contend with.  We wanted to trial it first, starting small but thinking big and then be able to advise on how best to implement a robotics strategy into the management of building facilities. 

Introducing ‘JiLL’:

Type:   NAO

Model:  V5/H25

JiLL’s current duties:

Assisting visitors with appointments

Providing directions to washrooms

Supporting deliveries and collections

Assisting with forgotten access passes

Recording and reporting building related faults

Recording and reporting IT faults

Weight/height:  5.4kg / 574mm

Country of origin: France / Japan