Businesses in Japan could soon rent a Pepper robot for customer service. In the coming years more and more customers in Japan might find themselves chatting with robots in business establishments. Softbank's enterprise version of the Pepper, the humanoid looking machine will be soon available for pre-orders, according to the spokesman for the company.
The robotics division of the company will start offering 3-year contracts starting at $444 per month to all interested parties. The company has announced that the Pepper enterprise version will be available to rent directly from Softbank starting on October 1, 2015.
Any business interested in renting the robot for its customer service needs would end up paying only around $16,000 within the 3-year contract period, which is much less than a human employee would cost them. Companies will have to return the robot unit once their 3-year contract is over.
Pepper for Biz, Softbank's enterprise edition of the friendly looking robot, isn't that much different from the base version. Softbank had already a great success on the market with their base version in June, which sold out in under a minute. Pepper is a robot specialized in "office reception" work, but it still can't help out around the office or in the house, since it can't do any manual labor.
The enterprise version will come out with pre-installed applications related to customer service and reception work. The robot will be able to talk to customers and record their information. It is most suitable for companies who plan to use it for their customer service needs. Unfortunately, both versions of Pepper are available at the moment only in Japan.
Any business owner around the world who wishes would have such a cute robot receptionist still have to wait. Meanwhile, Foxconn and Alibaba have invested last month around $236 million in SoftBank Robotics, with plans for an international release of Pepper robots.
