Tinkoff introduced Оleg, a voice assistant created in Russia for finance and lifestyle-related tasks, with the mission to help users navigate within the Tinkoff ecosystem, reports Henry Vilar of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

Surprisingly, Oleg is man, aged somewhere “between 25 and 40 years of age,” and seems to have a lot of personality, according to the bank.

According to the bank, Oleg, which can be accessed through the bank’s app, is able to recognize and interpret different user commands, ask follow-up questions, solve problems and speak on a variety of topics.

The AI can complete tasks such as transfer money to accounts at Tinkoff Bank and Sberbank, make restaurant reservations, book beauty salon appointments, buy cinema tickets with a cashback offer, search for discounts on products and services, converse on various topics, manage financial products (debit and credit cards), and more admin tasks, with many more to come.

Oleg will also be able to identify a user’s voice using biometric data and carry out commands that currently require authorisation within the Tinkoff app.

To start a conversation in the mobile app, one has to say “Hi Oleg” or “Listen Oleg” in Russian. You can ask Oleg a question, like “What’s on tonight” or ask him to perform a task, such as transfer funds. Oleg will be able to converse about various things, including himself.

Oleg can also say “Enough” or “Speak with a representative” if they feel Oleg isn’t resolving their problem successfully.

Tinkoff demonstrated Stories for its mobile banking app at FinovateEurope 2018. Headquartered in Moscow, Russia, and founded in 2006, the digital-only, branchless bank serves more than seven million customers, employs more than 20,000 people, and operates nine research and development hubs across Russia.