As Korea enters a "super-aged society," the financial sector's push to attract senior customers is expanding beyond wealth management into health and lifestyle care. Financial firms are broadening their reach to nursing facilities and "care robots," targeting demand for retirement asset management and elderly care among senior clients.
KB Financial Group (105560.KS) on Tuesday unveiled a humanoid care robot jointly developed with generative AI specialist Xenon at the "AI Expo Korea 2026," held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
Robots in the financial sector have traditionally been used mainly for branch guidance or simple consultation support, but the robot unveiled by KB Financial differs in its focus on senior care. Rather than merely guiding financial services, it expands the scope of use toward assisting the daily lives of the elderly.
The move comes as the elderly are emerging as a core customer base for the financial sector. According to the Household Finance and Welfare Survey by the Statistics Data Agency, the average assets of households headed by those aged 60 or older stood at 600.95 million won ($440,000) last year, up 3.2% from a year earlier. With growing asset size and rising demand for care due to aging, financial companies are viewing the senior business as a long-term customer acquisition strategy, analysts say.
The robot developed by KB Financial and Xenon is designed to perform precise movements, such as picking up a pill bottle and handing it to a person. It can navigate around obstacles to reach a table where a pill bottle is placed and return to deliver it to the user.
The robot also offers emotional care functions. Equipped with a large language model (LLM), it can engage in natural conversations similar to those with generative AI. It can ask how the user is doing each morning, remind them of medication schedules, and even dance to music to interact with them.
KB Financial is pursuing plans to introduce the humanoid robot to nursing facilities operated by its affiliate KB Golden Life Care. KB Golden Life Care currently operates five nursing facilities in Seoul and the metropolitan area, including Seocho, Wirye, Eunpyeong, Gwanggyo, and Gangdong.
Separately, in July this year, a form of technology verification will be conducted using the care robot "Kebi" at the senior living community "KB Pyeongchang County." Kebi is a compact mobile care robot under 1 meter in height. It provides safety services for residents, including emergency detection and spatial guidance, and also features convenience functions such as conversational check-ins and photo taking.
The financial sector expects the senior business to become a key competitive area among financial firms going forward. Elderly customers have diverse needs, including not only retirement asset management but also health, safety, care, and housing.
"Senior customers' demand is expanding beyond retirement asset management into safety, health, care, and housing," a financial industry official said. "The trend is toward expanding lifestyle-oriented senior businesses by leveraging financial companies' customer bases and the capabilities of their affiliates."
