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Shinhan Bank hires chatbot as apprentice

A Shinhan Bank employee promotes the bank's virtual chatbot-assisted communication channel platform, “AI Moli,” at the bank's main branch in Seoul in this file photo. / Courtesy of Shinhan Bank
By Park Jae-hyuk
Shinhan Bank has officially appointed its virtual chatbot-assisted communication channel platform, “AI Moli,” as a new “employee” Nov. 21 in line with the beginning of the program's trial run that month, the bank said Wednesday.
According to its spokesman, the bank also plans to promote Moli to a higher post in the future.
Shinhan launched the AI Moli project in May to improve its work processes through fast and accurate reviews with lowered possibility of careless mistakes.
Moli has been used for receiving financial fraud reports, financial transaction approval, sending copies of bank work records and sending promotional mobile messages to customers.
When employees enter a few keywords, the program, which functions as a “personal secretary,” shows relevant results in a speedy manner, helping boost work productivity and efficiency. Search histories are preserved for future reference to help with similar requests later.
The bank said its recent decision was made for its employees to inform Moli of bugs and add more search records into the system, as they help to instruct new employees.
As the bank intended, over 100 Shinhan employees have volunteered to be mentors to Moli. Those who did not volunteer have also offered various suggestions for Moli using Shinhan's intranet.
“Just like our other employees, Moli will go through on-the-job training for several months,” the spokesman said. “We will upgrade Moli through the training session.”
In addition to Moli, Shinhan developed several other virtual assistant chatbot applications, such as Orora, which helps customers navigate and use the bank's SOL mobile banking platform.
The spokesman, however, said his company has yet to appoint other chatbots as new employees.