AIA Singapore introduces robot staff
AIA Singapore has made local history, introducing the first humanoid robots to take on customer service roles in Singapore. The insurer’s newly renovated customer service centre at Finlayson Green and a second centre in Tampines will now number artificial intelligences among their staff – world-famous Pepper and Nadine, built at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, will greet customers and help them with their enquiries.
The robots have been designed to perceive human emotions and adapt their responses accordingly; they will utilise machine learning to evolve their interactions based on every customer they meet, building on their knowledge base in order to become more efficient and more personable.
Speaking at the launch event at the Finlayson Green centre, AIA’s CEO Patrick Teow said: “As industry leaders, it is our responsibility to constantly push the boundary of innovation to bring greater value and service excellence to our customers. As we strive to become the most digitally enabled insurer, we look to accelerate Singapore’s progress in embracing digitalisation for the future.”
Chief Operations Officer Melita Teo added: “Incorporating artificial intelligence with Pepper and Nadine is just one of many digitally-driven efforts at AIA Singapore. On this, we are single-minded in creating a customer-centric digital ecosystem that establishes a whole new standard that goes beyond how customers are typically serviced to deepen engagement with our customers.”
A vision of an exciting automated future in which frontline roles can be given over to humanoid robots while humans kick back and relax? Or a terrifying portent of our eventual subjugation by our machine creations? Only time will tell…