Britain's most hated bank is rolling out a robot teller that shows empathy

Just about every service industry--from retailers to restaurants to hotels--has developed some kind of robot to attend to your needs on the cheap. The latest effort in the banking world (there are already robotic bank receptionists in China and Japan) is to take the rote responses of bots to the next level, by adding a touch of human empathy. The Royal Bank of Scotland (paywall) plans to unveil its new artificial intelligence system, known as "Luvo," by the end of the year. The AI service, designed by IBM, will attend to customer banking needs through its mobile or online as a chatbot. It will function similarly to Siri, the iPhone virtual assistant that answers questions with a distinct voice and "personality."