City Union Bank (CUB), which has deployed robots to answer customer queries at its branches, is reprogramming a machine for collecting cash from customers, an official said.
The robot, named ‘Lakshmi,’ is deployed at its T. Nagar branch in Chennai. It is currently answering customer queries.
Now, it had been reprogrammed to accept cash.
“Currently, trials are on and the robot will start collecting cash during the first week of September,” said the bank official.
“Using facial recognition mechanism, the robot easily identifies the customer. All that you have to do is to hand over the cash to Lakshmi, which will be standing next to the teller. It will deposit the money in the specially-made counting machine and a SMS will be sent to the customer confirming the transaction,” he said.
Operating on an Artificial Intelligence platform, the robot answers 120 questions likely to be posed to it by walk-in customers in English and Tamil. Very soon, it will start interacting in Telugu also.
“The robot was inducted into service to answer routine queries. But soon, we found out that it can handle several other tasks simultaneously. It has reduced the work pressure of some 15 officials,” said N. Kamakodi, managing director and chief executive officer. “We are the first bank in the country to introduce a robot and also that which talks in regional language,” he said. “Many more features will be added in the coming months. Though it has been imported from France, the hardware and software are developed by a Coimbatore-based firm. We have invested close to ₹7-8 lakh,” he said.
At present,CUB had deployed robots in about five branches, including Kumbakonam and Coimbatore. In a year’s time, the machines will be deployed in more than 100 branches, he said.
