Stick em’ up! Bank robbery drills in the Metaverse
The Bank of America is mixing a virtual reality metaverse and artificial intelligence to train new employees on everything from handling angry customers to bank robberies.
Bloomberg reported July 13 that the bank’s 2,000 new hires undergo a week-long training regime that includes slipping on a VR headset to practice responding to a variety of simulated situations.
The VR modules include mundane situations like helping an upset customer or quizzing one which asks for a large swath of cash, and extreme ones, like a full-blown bank robbery.
The newcomers can also just chill out in VR by riding a unicorn or sitting on an island.
An upset virtual customer the new BoA staff have to calm. Source: Bloomberg
AI is also deployed in the training, the new hires practice conversing with a bot acting as a customer and are helped through the conversation by yet another AI bot.
Currently, over 200,000 global BoA staff have been privy to the virtual training. The bank’s call centers also have an AI coaching bot to assist in drilling conversations with clients. Managers can also handball further staff training to the bots.
The innovation and design executive of the BoA’s Academy, Mike Wynn, told Bloomberg that the training is advantageous as these scenarios are “hard to teach traditionally.”
“VR creates anxiety, it gets your heart rate up. It makes you nervous,” he added.
Use of its metaverse is also being mulled for use at job fairs in a bid to entice a younger audience for an enthralling career in banking by having them virtually live out the hum-drum of a bank associate.
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