When people pass by Workers Credit Union branches and glimpse the life-size hologram concierge inside, their curiosity is piqued.
“Some people don’t know what exactly it is and they walk around it cautiously,” said Don DeLuca, a solutions architect for Workers, which is based in Littleton, Massachusetts. “Kids seem to really like it.”
The holographic image, which is cast on a screen, is created by Prsonas, a division of nuMedia, a digital customer experience company. The avatar-like image is of a woman dressed in a yellow button-up shirt and gray slacks. The $2.4 billion-asset credit union dubbed her Olivia and placed her in its four PlanIt Centers, its name for its more tech-centric branches.
Olivia speaks English, Spanish, Vietnamese and American Sign Language; she is largely stationary, although she moves her hands to communicate in ASL. She saves the human branch employees the mundane tasks of greeting customers who approach her, delivering information about Workers’ products and pointing out the tablet where they can check in to their appointments. She also distracts the children whose parents are conversing with financial coaches at the Center.
Life-size holograms are a nascent technology in banking, and few financial institutions are spotlighting the feature the way Workers is. Instead, banks use holograms behind the scenes to beam employees to speak at faraway events or conferences, saving time, money and environmental cost. Others are contemplating ways to integrate holographic tellers into branches. The companies that turn real people into digital replicas say it’s more personal than video and has more of an emotional impact on the audience, and that their technology lets holograms talk and react to others, such as fellow participants on a panel, in real time.
Workers Credit Union’s PlanIt Centers are more tech-heavy than the credit union’s regular locations. Besides Olivia there is a Pepper robot, digital pillars that display financial well-being quizzes, and video ATMs; eventually, Workers will convert all of its locations to PlanIt Centers.
“We decided that because the PlanIt branches are a new concept, we would change out the technology. We wanted to put things in there that you wouldn’t see in a typical branch,” said Joanne White, chief information and operations officer at Workers. Currently Olivia’s speech is scripted, but the credit union hopes to integrate conversational artificial intelligence abilities over time. The hologram will detect people approaching, as opposed to simply walking by, and automatically activate.
The Prsonas software behind Olivia can be used in different ways. When projecting Olivia (or another humanlike personality) onto life-size hardware, it’s a hologram; the company could also deploy its personalities onto a digital screen, such as a tablet, as digital avatars.
Other hologram companies use a combination of specialized and off-the-shelf technology to beam people from one location using pre-recorded presentations or in real time.
At a demonstration of Arht Media’s “HoloPresence” technology in a WeWork studio in Washington, D.C., the company CEO, Larry O’Reilly, who was in Toronto, Canada, appeared on a black mesh screen and interacted live with attendees. There were no delays in speech between the speaker and audience.
The company uses proprietary software and three-dimensional screens to transmit three-dimensional, life-size images of people over the internet. It has worked with banks to send speakers to conferences without traveling, and says demand is increasing as they gear up for more in-person meetings and conferences. In 2019 it beamed a senior vice president from Royal Bank of Canada, Chris Phillips, to the Sibos conference in London from Toronto to speak on a panel about the future of data and tech in banking.
“Beaming into Sibos as a hologram … not only saved me an incredible amount of time, it also let me participate in an important and timely panel discussion on the future of financial services while using cutting-edge technology,” Phillips said in a press release at the time. Several years ago, when Janet Yellen was chair of the Federal Reserve, Arht Media beamed her from Chicago to Singapore to deliver a keynote at an event hosted by the Bank of Singapore and a session sponsored by Barclays. Past clients have also included Citi, Deutsche Bank and UBS.
O’Reilly says a hologram creates a more memorable and engaging experience for attendees. The company says it encrypts communications end to end to meet bank compliance requirements.
Proto does something similar. Doug Barry, co-founder and chief operating officer, specifies that Proto creates a 3D-like volumetric video effect that most people associate with a classic hologram. Put simply, the person to be beamed elsewhere as a hologram will be broadcast from in front of a standard video camera or mobile phone with Proto’s app to record content or speak live. The device is connected to Proto’s proprietary global cloud network and the hologram will materialize in a life-size “box” plugged into a regular electrical outlet that Proto’s client buys, rents or leases from Proto. The box can be placed on a stage, integrated into another structure or be wrapped in company logos and designs.
The advantage over simply connecting a speaker to a conference or two people in a meeting via video is that studies show such holograms “create a more emotional connection and chemical reaction than traditional two-dimensional video,” Barry said. The company has a major bank client and is in talks with several others, which it can’t name, to use holograms for such tasks as office-to-office communication that might otherwise necessitate flying C-suite executives to another country or addressing customers in branches with pre-recorded greetings or potentially with live customer service. He has noticed interest ticking up in the last nine months to a year. Proto has also spent time figuring out how to securely connect to the banks’ networks.
“All banks are trying to deal with the same thing: improve the customer experience, reduce cost, help improve the planet and adapt to a new hybrid work environment,” Barry said.
Outside reactions about the utility of holograms serving as greeters or diversions in branches are mixed.
Robert Meara, a senior analyst in retail and corporate banking at Celent, notes that several banks inside and outside of the U.S. have experimented with robots.
“To my knowledge, none of them amounted to anything more than a novelty,” he said. “I suspect holograms will be another wayward effort. Most consumers have a pretty serious or sober view of financial matters. They won’t visit their bank or credit union for amusement or experiences that have nothing to do with the value proposition of the financial institution.”
Steven Dickens, a senior analyst in blockchain, fintech and more at Futurum Research, expects to see more innovative forms of engagement and interaction as companies, including banks, move closer to the metaverse. “As banks look to drive down costs in the branch, they are also looking to make banking more experiential,” he said. “Holograms, telepresence and digital twins" — virtual replicas of physical devices — "and avatars will all become options for methods of interaction with customers.”
