Case Study: ATB Financial transforms branch customer experience with Avanade’s Pepper robot

Interactive Pepper Robot Delivers Innovative Customer Experience for ATB Financial

ATB Financial, seeking to make branch banking less intimidating and to attract millennials, recent graduates and new Canadians, partnered with Avanade and SoftBank Robotics America to pilot an innovative customer engagement strategy. The challenge was to differentiate ATB from larger competitors, boost foot traffic, and create a more enjoyable, approachable in-branch experience.

Avanade built a custom Android application for SoftBank’s humanoid robot Pepper, which greets customers, recommends products, runs a simple financial quiz, and interacts playfully (selfies, dances). Launched in Calgary in April 2017, the pilot generated broad media coverage (29 unique pieces, 34 syndications, ~52.5M impressions) and strong social buzz (542 Twitter mentions, ~3.2M impressions), received positive customer feedback, and set the stage for measured expansion and future AI-driven features like personalized greetings and multilingual support.

ATB Financial

Dave Mowat

President & Chief Executive Officer