Japanese bank to introduce robots that provide customer service

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Programmers work on NAO, a humanoid robot developed by Aldebaran Robotics at the 2014 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots in Madrid in November.

Customers at some branches of Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ in Tokyo will soon be greeted by a robot, in what the bank says will be a first for any major financial institution in the world.

The 58-centimeter robots, named NAO, can answer most basic customer-service questions in 19 languages, as well as analyze customers' facial expressions and behavior, the bank says.

"We can ramp up communication with our customers by adding a tool like this," said Kazunobu Takahara, a bank spokesman. The bank will start by placing the robots in one or two branches, likely in April, and then proceed according to customer feedback.

Video of customers recorded by the robot's forehead-mounted camera can also help the bank develop new financial services in the future, Mr. Takahara said.

NAO was developed by the French company Aldebaran Robotics, which is owned by Japanese telecom and technology giant SoftBank Corp. It costs around $8,000 and has been mainly used at schools and research institutes.

His bigger brother Pepper, also developed by Aldebaran, started working in a similar role at SoftBank's Tokyo stores last year. Softbank placed Pepper, which has a 120-centimeter body, in around 90 stores.

Pepper is more mobile, but NAO is a better communicator and is more skilled at reading people's facial expressions, BTMU said.

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