Indian banks have started relying upon robots to handle customers. Yup, that is right. An increasing number of banks are now moving away from humans, and relying upon humanoid robots to cater to the needs of their customers. At least where all that is needed is the answer to a single question.
The robots in question aren’t terminators. For instance, the robots in Canara Bank’s Bengaluru head office are called Mitra. Equipped with a HD camera, the root can answer as many as 500 frequently asked questions. Sweet, right? Just think of the trouble saved for the bank employees, who can now focus on work instead of answering queries from random customers.
Speaking on the topic to ET, KN Ramamoorthy, GM of Canara Bank said:
The robot can listen to customer queries and offers guidance depending upon the question.
The robot also guides the customer to the current counter as per their needs.
The robots have been created by 10-month old Invento. Speaking about their abilities, Balaji Vishwanath, chief executive of Invento said:
Mitra goes around the office answering customer queries and guides them to the correct counter.
Other banks are also relying upon humanoid robots to ease work flows. HDFC and City Union Bank are also purchasing these robots for a few hundred thousand rupees each, and training them to answer a range of questions like bank’s history, account details, lending rates, updating passbooks and so on.
While the robot assisting the City Union Bank is called Lakshmi, the HDFC bank is going with the name IRA. And the banks are planning to ramp up the capabilities of their robots as well.
Going forward, we are planning to step up the robot’s capability to carry out tasks like financial transactions and ordering cheque books.
And eventually, the plan is to ramp up the security and then use these robots to conduct transactions as well. We are still a few years away from the time, but it is coming even as we speak.
