The robot-labeling phenomenon: robot-ready modern operational risk management

Human-free (robo) bank branches operating autonomously with software and embodied robots are now a reality, posing significant operational risks. Robots utilizing diverse underlying technologies exhibit varying risk profiles based on their intelligence and level of autonomy. Risks stemming from robot-related incidents should be integrated into the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s existing framework. Therefore, understanding the definition of “robot†in the banking sector is crucial for effective operational risk management. This study fills a gap in the literature by discussing the robot-labeling phenomenon (ie, indiscriminate use of the term “robot†to mean both a physical and digital form) and highlighting its widespread misuse in the literature and in banking practice. Analysis of the Hungarian Operational Risk (HunOR) database reveals that the current operations do not record robot autonomy or human oversight, and human-centered risk categorization predominates in risk event categorization, which lacks specific categories for autonomous artificial intelligence or robots. This paper advocates for a shift in the operational risk management mindset to address synthetic era challenges through enhanced risk profiling, human–robot task trade-off catalogs, incident catalogs, operational risk database modernization, training and the establishment of cross-functional robotics forums.