Russia big bank to launch robot lawyer

Russia's biggest bank, Sberbank, has recently announced a launch of a robot lawyer which will be assigned a task to process letters of complaints. The innovation will axe approximately 3000 specialists currently working in the bank structure, according to a report by TASS agency, citing Sberbank’s Deputy CEO Vadim Kulik.

On the sidelines of the annual Gaidar Forum, Kulik announced robot lawyer was launched in Q4 of 2016, with full robotization to be completed in the first months of 2017. “It means that approximately 3000 specialists who have been processing letters of complaints will be freed from performing this particular task. We have quite ambitious plans. We are planning to launch robot lawyers in a range of fields", he added. 

Kulik explained that the innovation will relieve bank’s specialists from routine tasks. Looking into the future, he said that eventually the processing of all routine legal documentation will be automatized, allowing lawyers to deal only with serious legal procedures.All specialists that have performed the routine legal jobs will be offered to take special training courses. As Kulik mentioned, it is important to re-evaluate “how we can apply their skills and where.”

In September 2016, Sberbank’s CEO Herman Gref forecast that in five years artificial intelligence systems will be responsible for 80% of the decisions at the bank. This means that tens of thousands of people are about to lose their jobs, he told Russian media back then.The replacement will not happen immediately, but the process will be stretched over time.