Russia's VTB Bank has launched a 'robot factory', with plans to roll 250 digital employees off the production line by the end of 2022.
VTB says the new robots will reduce the share of routine operations, including document processing and data entry, and reduce the cost of processing by three-to-four times.
The introduction of the first robot will take about two to three months following consultations with employees over which processes can and need to be automated. The bank is expecting to have 60 bots in operation by the end of the year, using optical character recognition and machine learning technologies to automate tasks such as reading, understanding and subsequent processing of documents.
Vadim Kulik, deputy president and chairman of VTB, comments: “The robotization programme in its operating function will allow customers to increase the speed of processes, including, for example, working with credit applications. We will also identify suboptimal processes, improve them, optimise costs and reduce operational risks."
During the pandemic, VTB implemented a robot for processing and verifying data on applications for preferential loans to small and medium-sized businesses under the state employment support programme in a record time of three weeks. The robot reduced the processing time of applications by almost five times, processing up to 1,500 applications per day.