Robots Taking Over Banks |
Posted: April 18, 2018 |
In late 2017, a robot was granted citizenship for the first time ever – in Saudi Arabia, of all places. She’s/it’s been putting its passport to good use by advocating human rights in a country that only recently passed laws to allow women to drive. Who knows what her next move is, but many think that Sophia will begin to fight for robot rights in the workplace. The Social Robot This phrase was used to describe the android by her creator, Dr. David Hanson of Hanson Robotics. Though she has yet to land a job at a bank, she’s already equipped with the power to reason and learn from past experiences – two important features that anybody in customer service can attest to. She can identify and differentiate faces and voices, she doesn’t make the same mistake twice, and her movement is almost indistinguishable from a human’s. There are still several aspects that need to be fine-tuned, one of them being the ability to identify working hours and quitting time (you’d have to visit sites like opening hours to get an accurate schedule of working hours of banks and other establishments). Deep Learning One of Sophia’s most sophisticated features is deep learning. Essentially, deep learning means being able to discover new things and being able to correct past mistakes. One example of deep learning is the social robot’s ability to see you laugh and understand the source of your reaction. The ability to gauge a person’s reaction is extremely important in the service industry as hostile and docile customers react to responses in different ways. How Far Away Are We From Being Replaced by Robots? Although the humanoid characteristics are already in place, Dr. Hanson estimates that we’re still at least five years away from hiring our first android teller. Sophia’s programming needs to be checked with a fine-tooth comb before being fit to serve and offer advice. For now, it’s still unsafe to take financial advice or plan your retirement based on what robots have to say on the matter. Virtual Bank Service Agent Sophia has been called a “chatbot with a face” and admittedly that’s not far from the truth. Chatbots are designed to give responses and arrive at conclusions based on the material you feed them. Though Sophia has yet to work a 9-5 job, NatWest recently launched Cora – a digital chatbot with a human face – to handle online inquiries and deal with customers. For now, Cora’s responses are taken from a list of pre-programmed answers to address a limited list of the most commonly asked questions, but deep learning could help her evolve into something much more flexible. Why the Shift to Digital Humans? You might question why companies are investing thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars to create robots to replace entry-level jobs, but the answer is a lot simpler than you could imagine. First and foremost, the financial service industry, including banks and investment agencies, is aiming towards providing instantaneous responses to an array of common and complicated questions. In the end, offering services in a timely manner is driving the industry to choose robot workers over slower-thinking, subjective-mannered humans.
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