HSBC’s Robot Is Boosting Foot Traffic in New York

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Robot is here to serve customers, not take jobs, says head of innovation

 

The use of robots at HSBC Bank USA, N.A.’s flagship branch in New York has improved customer service without the loss of jobs often associated with automation and artificial intelligence, said Jeremy Balkin, the bank’s head of innovation.

 

Average daily foot traffic has increased an estimated five times since the addition in June of two customer-service focused human-like robots programmed to greet customers and educate them about HSBC products, Mr. Balkin said. The New York-based bank, a division of London-based HSBC Holdings Plc., hasn’t eliminated any human jobs as a result of the robotic additions and hopes to add more bankers to its Fifth Avenue flagship store to cope with the increase in customers, he said.

“It’s counterintuitive to some of the narrative that robots are going to take roles away,” he said.

 

The robots, made by SoftBank Robotics Group, a subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp., are outfitted with tablets and use natural language processing, a component of artificial intelligence, to understand the intent behind a customer’s voice-based requests. Customers can ask the robots, which SoftBank has nicknamed “Pepper,” for information related to about 300 actions such as opening a new account, applying for a new credit card, depositing checks and accessing the mobile app.

 

The robot and tablet can walk customers through step-by-step video instructions for, say, depositing a check with an ATM machine or downloading the mobile app. These are tasks that are simple and not the best use of a banker’s time, Mr. Balkin said. Between late June and late July, Mr. Balkin said people interacted with Pepper robots about 5,400 times.

 

“It’s driving this incredible foot traffic that has gotten people through the door,” he said.

 

The robots are being deployed at HSBC amidst growing worldwide discussions about the impact of AI on the workforce. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs 2018 report, released last month, predicts that by 2025, more than half of all current workplace tasks will be performed by machines, as opposed to 29% today.

 

But the impact of machines and algorithms on the entire workforce will result in net positive job growth, according to the report, as companies in sectors ranging from finance to hospitality and telecommunications discover new ways to pair software, machines and artificial intelligence with human labor.

 

Overall the report, which surveyed chief human resources officers and top strategy executives across 300 global companies, predicted a decline of 984,000 jobs and a gain of 1.74 million jobs between now and 2022.

 

The robots at the Fifth Avenue HSBC location were deployed after a four-month pilot program and a monthslong study about customer interactions at the flagship store. Customers at that location are 50% more digitally savvy and technologically engaged than average HSBC customers across the U.S., which was one reason Mr. Balkin said he wanted to use technology to improve the customer service experience.

 

The robot deployment was part of a $130 million investment of digital, technology and mobile upgrades across the U.S., spearheaded by Mr. Balkin’s boss, Pablo Sanchez, HSBC’s head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management for the U.S. and Canada. Top-level executives also are supportive of technology investments, which is why there was little friction when Mr. Balkin advocated for a robotics investment, he said.

 

The new chief executive of HSBC Holdings PLC said in June the bank is in growth mode and plans to invest up to $17 billion in China and new technologies.

 

In some cases, the Pepper robots, which are 4 feet tall and don’t identify with a specific gender, are the first line of contact before the customer connects with human bankers. Sometimes, the robots have helped reduce wait times from about four minutes to under a minute for help with simple services such as depositing a check via ATM.

 

They’re also freeing up time for bankers to help customers with “high-value” services such as wealth management and insurance, which often require human-like skills such as relationship building, Mr. Balkin said.

 

Within the next several months, HSBC could add more robots to more branch locations, Mr. Balkin said. They’ll be able to understand user requests in languages beyond English. Currently, the robots do not collect customer data, but in the near future, customers will be able to type their contact information into the robots’ tablets to receive website links and mobile apps related to products that customers are interested in.

 

“The impact of technology and certainly robots, long-term, will be the capacity for much more human interaction,” Mr. Balkin said. “It’ll negate a lot of repetitive, mundane, binary tasks that a machine can do much faster.”

 

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