Customer care: Bank turns to humanoid robots
Canara Bank, the public sector undertaking, has turned to humanoid robots to help with its front office, installing two units at offices in the city.
At the head office on JC Road and the circle office in MG Road here, customers can interact with Mitra and Candi, the two robots set up to interact with customers.
Since may, Mitra has been greeting customers in Kannada at the head office and helping them navigate the premises, using a high-definition camera placed in its head. The the 4.5-feet tall robot has been developed by Invento, a Bengaluru-based start-up.
Candi, smaller than Mitra and developed by SoftBank Robotics, answers customers' queries regarding the bank's fully digital branch located on the busy MG Road.
Currently, Mitra is undergoing an upgrade and is not functional. But Candi was seen answering people's queries. An official said the exact outlay on the two robots could not be revealed, but said Mitra cost about ₹3 lakh whereas Candi cost around ₹10 lakh.
Shwetha A, an officer at the MG Road branch, explained Candi has been programmed to answer a set of 215 questions. “There are two modes for Candi, the normal mode and the banking mode. In normal mode, Candi can respond to any question. Since we keep it on the banking mode, it can only respond to the 215 questions, which are displayed next to it,” she said.
The robot was installed in July.
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,” he said.
Satish Kumar HS, marketing manager at the circle office, said the bank plans to scale this model up. “We intend to have such facilities at around 50 branches in the near future,” he said.
“The robot is one aspect of the digital branch we are attempting to set up,” said Kumar, referring to the Candi branch, which has automated kiosks where customers can create accounts and also generate instant debit cards by themselves.