Say hello to Shanice: Brent council's £12,000 hologram 'greeter'

A hologram will replace a human receptionist to greet visitors to a London town hall.

Brent council spent £12,000 on a "virtual assistant" of the type more usually used at airports to warn passengers not to carry liquids and stand in the right queue.

"Shanice" will appear to sit behind a desk but actually be projected on to a screen at the £90 million civic centre to "help point people in the right direction".

The council said it was cheaper to have a virtual employee, which can be reprogrammed, but libraries campaigners called it "incredibly wasteful" and opposition councillors questioned value for money when the council was cutting jobs.

The hologram - played by actress Shanice Stewart-Jones - is only programmed to answer a limited number of questions.

It includes telling visitors where the correct part of the building is to register births and deaths or apply for a marriage licence or citizenship.

Brent said that the hologram will sit "behind a desk just like a real receptionist, but on closer inspection she’s actually projected onto a see-through screen".

Shanice will have a touch-screen function where visitors can type in the reason for their visit and be told where they should go and what paperwork they need.

It is understood to be the first of its kind to be used by a council.

The council said the hologram initially cost £12,000, which they claim will save £17,000 compared to a human receptionist, but extra will need to be spent on Shanice’s "reprogramming costs".

Alison Hopkins, budget and finance spokeswoman for the opposition Lib Dems, said: "There have been complaints about signage in Brent’s new civic centre but this is a startlingly expensive way of solving the problem.

"As the council admits, Shanice can’t respond even to basic questions but is limited to a small number of pre-recorded scripts.

"I hope she has been told one of the commonest questions is: ‘ Where are the toilets?’"

Laura Collignon, of the Brent SOS Libraries campaign, said: "It’s incredibly wasteful.

"That £12,000 should be spent on essential services.

"When they cut libraries they said they needed money for things like home care and other core services, clearly a hologram isn’t a core service."