This bank is staffing branches with humanoid robots
This bank is staffing branches with humanoid robots that
dance, take selfies and push credit cards
HSBC executives are posting seven of the robots, created
by SoftBank Robotics, in the lobby of their Fifth Avenue branch.
If the machines help improve users' experiences, the bank
will roll them out to more of its 228 U.S. branches.
Hugh Son June 26, 2018 Published Ago CNBC.com
HSBC Bank welcomes SoftBank Robotics' humanoid robot,
Pepper, to their team at the Fifth Ave branch on Monday, June 25, 2018 in New
York.
Ground zero for the robot takeover of financial services
is an HSBC branch in midtown Manhattan.
Here, crowds of camera phone-toting tourists cooed and
clapped at Pepper, an adorable 4-foot-tall robot with a high-pitched voice and
a tablet screen strapped to its chest, during a recent test run. HSBC
executives are posting seven of the machines, created by SoftBank Robotics, in
the lobby of their Fifth Avenue branch starting Tuesday to interact with
customers and signal that the London-based bank is serious about technology.
“How may I help you?” Pepper asks in a cheerful voice,
urging onlookers to select among a half-dozen options, including tutorials on
self-service channels like mobile banking and ATMs.
In one demonstration, after pitching a credit card and
summoning a human colleague to help close the deal, Pepper helped a user kill
time by dancing hypnotically to a techno beat. The robot also poses for selfies
and tells jokes.
After decades of portrayals in science fiction, robots
are beginning to appear in everyday settings, doing menial tasks from vacuuming
homes to flipping burgers. In finance, big banks including J.P. Morgan Chase
and Bank of America have focused on software rather than physical robots,
pouring billions of dollars into artificial intelligence and machine learning
to speed transactions, resolve complaints and improve service. HSBC is the
first to employ humanoid robots in a U.S. bank branch.
"This is going to drive more people into the door,”
said Pablo Sanchez, HSBC’s head of retail banking and wealth management for
North America. “But once they’re in, it has to go beyond the gimmick. If it’s
just people taking selfies, in two weeks that’ll be over. So we wanted to make
sure it could do some really valuable things for our customers, educate them on
our product set, be able to point them in the right direction.”
The bank, which worked with Softbank for six months to
train Pepper, is tracking customers’ wait times and how well the robots are
helping to sell more products and services, Sanchez said. If the machines help
improve users’ experiences, the bank will roll them out to more of its 228 U.S.
branches. Locations in California including Cupertino and Silicon Valley are
next in line to get the robots.
The bank plans to gradually increase Pepper’s
capabilities, allowing users to complete product applications on its tablet,
and eventually introduce other improvements to its branches. HSBC spent $131
million on the robots and other upgrades, including voice identification and
new digital banking apps.
The advances come amid rising anxiety about disruption
that increasingly sophisticated technology including artificial intelligence,
poses to workers. Automation could wipe out a third of U.S. jobs by 2030, with
the greatest impact on jobs involving repetitive tasks, according to the
McKinsey Global Institute.
For HSBC, staffing bank branches with machines that never
take vacations or ask for a raise is not to save money but rather to drum up
more business, particularly among technology-loving millennials, Sanchez said.
“Do I think we’re going to replace all our people with
Peppers?” Sanchez asked. “Absolutely not. It’s very much a way to grow the
business and bring more humans to the party, not less.”
Others criticized HSBC’s approach as misguided in a time
when most banking happens via mobile phones, not in branches. When a customer
does enter a branch, it’s to speak to a person, said Neil Kinson, chief of staff
at Redwood Software, a Netherlands-based firm that automates back-office
operations for companies.
“They shouldn’t be putting robots on the floor,” Kinson
said. “They should be eliminating the jobs that noncustomer-facing people do
and then moving those people onto the shop floor.”
Sanchez pushed back on the idea that his efforts to
inject fun into a staid industry were frivolous.
“In just the few tests we’ve done, this thing has almost
already paid for itself,” Sanchez said. “We’ve had a customer come in last week
and open up multiple accounts for significant dollars with us because Pepper
was out there.”
Comments
Post a Comment