**Will digital humans replace bank tellers?**
On July 8, the World Artificial Intelligence Conference concluded in Shanghai. At this event, multiple financial institutions presented digital human products, such as digital employees. These digital beings incorporate multimodal interaction, 3D digital human modeling, voice recognition, natural semantic understanding, and intelligent knowledge bases, allowing for more realistic simulations of human interaction. According to data from Tianyancha, there are currently 687,000 companies related to “digital humans” in China, with over 106,000 new registrations in the first half of this year alone.
In certain commercial service sectors, the phenomenon of “machines replacing humans” is already evident and is continually advancing. Previously, many companies chose to use robot customer service to replace some human customer service. However, due to varying levels of technology and service quality, the results have been mixed. The emergence of digital humans, with their better anthropomorphic states and understanding capabilities, will further support this substitution trend from a technical perspective.
Regarding the question of whether the continuously improving digital humans will replace bank tellers, we need to start by examining the transformation of basic bank branches, the workplace of these tellers. In the past, the primary business of these branches involved routine mechanical operations and small transactions, from deposits and withdrawals to transfers. Nowadays, these services can be done through various online self-service channels including internet banking, mobile banking, as well as offline self-service channels such as ATMs and self-service teller machines.
Even though many bank branches appear deserted, self-service channels have accelerated the speed of business handling, and the functions of the branches are changing. The demand for small counter transactions has decreased, freeing up manpower and space. By providing more professional financial services and integrating more finance-related social functions, these branches are actually establishing closer ties with the surrounding community and customer base, leading to an increase, rather than a decrease, in turnover.
This trend is visible in bank branch data. After 2017, the total number of bank branches nationwide has been declining, albeit slowly. As of the end of June last year, excluding policy banks, the total number of bank branches in the country was 223,383, a decrease of only 252 from the end of 2021, maintaining a relatively stable number. While large banks have been reducing branch institutions, they have been further optimizing branch layouts and facilities. The number of branches of small and medium-sized financial institutions such as city commercial banks, joint-stock commercial banks, and rural banks is increasing, further expanding their social coverage.
In this changing situation, the work content of bank branch staff, including tellers, has changed. They are no longer just mechanically processing small transactions but are strengthening communication with the surrounding community and customers. The existence of online channels also makes the connection between branch staff and customer groups more frequent and closer. Information that used to require “posting notices” or word-of-mouth communication can now be shared via a single smartphone. In this context, digital humans are not replacing grassroots service personnel in financial branches, but rather accelerating their transformation.
In fact, this scenario also applies to other commercial service sectors. The goal of digitalization is not to completely replace frontline service personnel but to allow them to “step out” of mechanical, repetitive business processing and do what is more necessary: enhance communication and contact with customers.
https://www.chinanews.com.cn/cj/2023/07-11/10040395.shtml