While RBS appears intent on reducing the amount of human interaction its customers have with staff, the company insists that Luvo's can trawl a vast database of information "in a split second" and respond with the right answer. If it can't, it'll forward the request to a real person who is more qualified to help.

"Luvo is unique in that a 'human' like personality has been created for it," RBS says in a statement. "Its unique psychological profile means it has a warmth to its personality, is approachable, creative and uses a combination of intuition and reasoning when answering questions." Although Luvo initially needs to be trained to understand subjects, RBS insists it will earn its AI stripes by "learning from its mistakes," which will make it "more accurate over time."

In the coming months, the bank will slowly introduce the chat bot to customers, but only via "small, voluntary, customer pilots." It's hoped Luvo will reduce the amount of time it takes to speak to an advisor by answering the easy questions and letting its human counterparts handle the more complex enquiries.