Banks Are Promoting 'Female' Chatbots To Help Customers, Raising Concerns Of Stereotyping

"Mia" is the virtual assistant introduced by Australian digital bank Ubank in February 2019. These aren't the members of a new, all-female rock group, but names that several large banks have been giving to their automated digital assistants. So-called chatbots have become a useful cost-cutting tools for companies with large subscriber bases (think banks, insurance firms and mobile phone operators). As they replace human call-center workers, such bots will help save banks an estimated $7.3 billion in operational costs by 2023, Juniper Research predicts. But the proliferation of bots with female names raises questions about whether they might also perpetuate gender stereotypes, particularly around the notion of women in the role of assistants.