Meet Lakshmi, India’s first robot to be appointed as a customer care executive at Union bank, T. Nagar branch in Chennai! We have been hearing of robots since a long time, but now we will soon have one! A two feet tall robot, Lakshmi will be placed in the lobby to greet customers. It is designed to greet people, explain various services, special schemes for a student, deposits and lending rates, interest rates on home loans, and also talk about bank’s history. Imported from France and customized in Coimbatore, Lakshmi will be installed in one branch on a pilot basis. Apart from this it will also answer queries on 125 subjects and respond in English during the pilot phase. In the coming months, Lakshmi will be programmed to respond in regional languages.
Lakshmi has been programmed to work on various core banking solutions like transaction history, ordering cheque books, providing account details etc. N. Kamakodi, Managing director and CEO of City Union Bank told a daily, “ A recent study said staffers spent most of the time answering some 120 basic questions. About 95 percent of the questions asked by customers were repetitive. We have fed the inputs and Lakshmi will be able to answer them.”
One of the bank’s executives told another news outlet, “Since its artificial intelligence, the robot is constantly learning from customers – the more interactions it has with customers the better it gets.” The bank also plans to install 25-30 robots in various branches after three months of observation on Lakshmi’s response.
