HDFC soon to house Humanoids under 'Project AI'

HDFC will soon deploy robots in its banking branches. The deployment of robots is part of a larger change under the launch of ‘Project AI’ launched by the bank. This project is inspired by similar initiatives taken by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Mizuho Bank. Last year Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi launched, Nao, a robot present to help the customers and Mizuho Bank’s Pepper does the same. As reported by Times of India, The sources familiar with the project point out that initially, the rollout will be in one of the branches and accordingly the project could scale up. The main functions of the robot will be in a limited role instead of other robots like Pepper which has better features where it can analyse customer behaviour and provide services accordingly. The role will be limited in the capacity of receptionist where the robot will greet the customers entering the bank and then display them services and banking facilities like withdrawal, deposit, forex, fixed deposits and demat. One of the options to be provided by the robot will be the presence of the map of the bank branch with a button’ Take me there." The bank is currently looking into baking newer technologies like facial recognition and audio recognition to improve the security of the robots and the consumers.