Robot-concierge and automatic issuance of bank cards – Sberbank selects projects for its accelerator
The bank received 31 applications concerning the development of assistant robots.
Sberbank Rossii PAO (MCX:SBER) has announced the completion of the selection of projects for its Accelerator program for intellectual robotic technology. The experts had to pick from 144 applications.
About 43% of the proposals had a prototype, whereas 28% were at the “idea” stage. Most of the applications concerned transportation (39 proposals), whereas the second place was for assistant robots (31 projects).
A total of six projects were invited to participate in the program. WayBot, for instance, is an assistant robot aiming to automate the process of interaction with clients. A project for a robot-concierge will perform various concierge functionalities, including monetizing of the incoming traffic.
Another project is a service for automatic issuance of bank cards. This service will permit a bank to perform a range of operations via a set of robotic devices: accounting, cataloguing, issuing and destroying cards.
Sberbank has a long history of supporting the development of innovative robotic solutions, as well as implementing such novel products in its own operations. In February this year, for instance, the Russian bank announced that a robot named Anna is starting work at the contact center of the corporate clients department. The robot will answer to a number of queries such as ones about the location of ATMs or bank offices with certain functions. In the future, the robot will also provide information about the status of payments and account balances.
Sberbank is also the first to secure the approval for participation in the sandbox launched by the Central Bank of Russia. Sberbank’s service helps remotely control permissions to carry out transactions using corporate client accounts. The piloting was carried out by professional associations of financial market participants and interested state bodies. The Bank of Russia and expert councils that are created under the regulatory platform have made recommendations and recognised the introduction of the service as viable.
