>> Since ATMs were introduced, the number of bank tellers in the US actually went up. > Would be interesting to know the background here, because this is massi

>> Since ATMs were introduced, the number of bank tellers in the US actually went up. > Would be interesting to know the background here, because this is massively counterintuitive. My guesses would be population growth and the increased complexity of financial products. With those things being automated, I guess banks had to find new ways to differentiate. Sales and relationship management are one of those domains that are highly difficult to automate and hence have a big potential for differentiation. I see this all the time in related industries where firms are increasingly pushing towards “value added services” because they believe that those are difficult to replicate by competitors through machines (or otherwise). I believe the good news is that this will often indeed lead to higher capabilities and new products / services that people are interested to purchase (banks are maybe a bad example here)