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Inside the HSBC branch on New York City's tony Fifth Avenue where Pepper the robot cracks jokes and gives directions to the nearest pizza shop by Dakin Campbell on Jun 26, 2018, 5:40 PM Advertisement
On Tuesday, HSBC unveiled its newest branch banker. This time, it's not another human with ambitions to be the next Jamie Dimon, but Pepper, a robot built by SoftBank Robotics to imitate human characteristics. The investment is intended to bring foot traffic and new business to the firm's flagship New York location on Fifth Avenue, and improve the branch experience for customers. The brainchild of HSBC's US retail banking and wealth management chief, Pablo Sanchez, and his head of innovation, Jeremy Balkin, Pepper is the first robot to be used in a US bank branch. HSBC's flagship branch sits on Fifth Avenue, just south of the New York Public Library's main building in one of the America's most iconic shopping districts.  When Sanchez joined HSBC from JPMorgan in 2015, he went looking for something to make the branch stand apart.
Sanchez and Balkin considered many options before settling on Pepper, after Balkin learned about the robot at a fintech- industry conference.  The expense of the investment, which HSBC declined to disclose, has already been recouped by new business coming into the bank, Balkin said.
SoftBank developed Pepper to replace human-to-human interactions where the same information is shared repeatedly.  At HSBC, the robot will provide details about credit-card offerings, direct customers to ATMs or summon human bankers to answer more complex questions. It can answer questions about the weather, give directions to the nearest pizza shop, and even crack jokes.
"What do you call a fish without eyes? An F-S-H. Get it, no I's."
Bank executives hope it will reduce wait times and improve customer experience.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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