HDFC hires a humanoid (IRA). Cuts 4,581 Jobs


HDFC has launched robotic assistant IRA.
IRA, i.e. Intelligent Robotic Assistant is deployed inside Mumbai’s Kamala Mills branch and to start off will perform basic functionalities like guiding the incoming customer towards selected banking operations like Forex, Cash Deposit, Loans.

But in the next upgrade, IRA will be able to answer queries related to balance amount etc (via). As an aside, do check IRA’s bindi – surely looks cute !
In another news, HDFC has cut 4,581 jobs citing improved efficiency. The total headcount reduced to 90,421 on 31 December 2016 as against 95,002 in 30 September 2016 (via).
While the two may not be directly related, bots are definitely eating up jobs and will soon replace a lot of transactional jobs.
ICICI too has hired robots which are processing more than 10 lakh transactions per day.
Recommended Read : AI : Hype Vs. Reality

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