Dubai - Emirates NBD’s Pepper has now learnt to speak Arabic! The artificial intelligence (AI) powered humanoid robot, brought to the UAE by Emirates NBD last year, has been widely popular due to his novel proposition and charming personality, and will now also cater to the bank’s Arabic-speaking customers.

Adding a fun element to the banking experience, the bilingual Pepper will continue to interact with customers at the bank’s Jumeirah Emirates Towers and Dubai Mall branches and provide assistance with issuing branch queueing tokens, presenting information about products and services in an engaging manner and obtaining customer feedback through a happiness meter.

“Pepper has been extremely popular with customers and well received at our branches and promotional events,” said Suvo Sarkar, Senior Executive Vice President & Group Head - Retail Banking & Wealth Management, Emirates NBD. “As a bank that has been at the forefront of digitisation and in bringing innovations to the region, we are pleased to offer our customers the opportunity to interact with Pepper in the language of their choice. Pepper brings in a modern and contemporary aspect to banking, complementing our multi-channel yet personalised banking proposition.”

Pepper made his first appearance in 2016 at Emirates NBD’s futuristic banking space in the Jumeirah Emirates Towers branch. The bank also recently announced a planned investment of AED 1 billion over the next three years to carry out a digital transformation program.

Seen here in the picture is Pepper interacting with customers and staff at an event held at the bank’s main branch in Abu Dhabi.

-Ends-

About Emirates NBD:
Emirates NBD is a leading banking Group in the region. As at 30th June 2017, total assets were AED 456.2 Billion, (equivalent to approx. USD 124 Billion). The Group has a significant retail banking franchise in the UAE and is a key participant in the global digital banking industry, with over 90 per cent of all financial transactions and requests conducted outside of its branches. The bank currently has 221 branches and 1023 ATMs and SDMs in the UAE and overseas and a large social media following, being the only bank in the Middle East ranked among the top 20 in the ‘Power 100 Social Media Rankings’, compiled by The Financial Brand. It is a major player in the UAE corporate and retail banking arena and has strong Islamic Banking, Global Markets & Treasury, Investment Banking, Private Banking, Asset Management and Brokerage operations.

The Group has operations in the UAE, Egypt, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and representative offices in India, China and Indonesia.

The Group is an active participant and supporter of the UAE’s main development and community initiatives, in close alignment with the UAE government’s strategies, including financial literacy and advocacy for inclusion of People with Disabilities under its #Together Limitless platform. For more information, please visit: www.emiratesnbd.com

© Press Release 2017