Bank in Bengaluru turns to humanoids for customer care
DALIAN/BENGALURU: Customer care comes with a humanoid touch now at two Bengaluru offices of Canara Bank, a public sector undertaking.
Mitra, a humanoid robot developed by Bengalurubased Invento Robotics and named after the Vedic god of friendship, could well be the poster child for cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI) between India and China.
Japan’s SoftBank Robotics too is in the mix with humanoid robot Candi. Mitra and Candi have found home in the Karnataka capital.
Mitra greets customers in Kannada and helps them navigate the bank’s head office on JC Road, while Candi offers answers in English to 215 preset questions at the financial institution’s circle office on MG Road. The 4.5-ft tall Mitra, deployed in May, is undergoing an upgrade and is not at work at the moment.
Bhanu Venkatesh, manager-technology, at the head office, said Mitra is programmed to help customers navigate the large premises. “It is placed on a conveyor system that helps it move forward and back. It essentially performs the function of a receptionist.”
Candi, which is slightly smaller than Mitra and was deployed in July, is supple- menting the human resource.
People were seen engaging with Candi on Thursday, but some still preferred to turn to the human at the ‘May I Help You’ kiosk.
Shwetha A, an officer at Candi’s branch, said, “There are two modes for Candi — normal and banking. In the normal mode, Candi can respond to a range of questions. However, we keep it on banking mode in which it can only respond to 215 questions, which are displayed next to it.” Among the questions are commonly asked ones such as where to make a deposit.
There is a novelty factor to the robots, but they are also a part of the bank’s bigger goal to increase digitisation.
Satish Kumar HS, marketing manager at the bank’s circle office, said, “We intend to have such facilities in around 50 branches.” Mitra cost about ₹3 lakh, whereas Candi cost around ₹10 lakh.
Balaji Viswanathan, one of the founders of Invento Robotics, told HT in China on Wednesday, “The (Mitra’s) computer-aided designing has been done in India. Its plastic mould is being made in Dongguan and the printed circuit boards and motor controls are being manufactured in Shenzhen.”
Viswanathan was in the northeastern city of Dalian to attend the first India-China Dalian Internet of Things (IoT) Conference.