First Robot Bank Job

Softbank Corp’s humanoid robot pepper began its first formal job outside Japan on Thursday at Taiwan’s first commercial bank. This is the first of 100 rented pepper units which are due to “work” at other banks as well as in French retailer Carrefour shops in Taiwan. First commercial bank’s pepper was unveiled to the media where it was handed a formal employee ID card by the bank’s CEO. Pepper performed a short exercise routine with bank employees before interacting with customers. First commercial representatives said that pepper’s responsibilities will mainly be to interact with and entertain customers. They added that for now, pepper won’t be servicing customers in any formal bank transactions. First commercial bank will soon have over 20 peppers in operation at its bank branches across the country. Pepper, the fast-selling robot, can already laugh and serve coffee and is being used as a waiter, salesman and customer service representatives in about 500 companies in Japan, including Nestle, Mizuho Bank and Nissan.