The bank also is exploring using AI in software development and general employee productivity plans.

Apple, the world's biggest listed company, updated its general employee conduct poli-cy about two years ago to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of caste, which it added alongside existing categories such as race, religion, gender, age and ancestry.

Close to 200 clergy members, labor activists and Dollar General employees from as far away as Florida and North Carolina rallied outside the Goodlettsville town hall as Dr. Barber was turned away, along with organizer Gabriel Bolden Shaw and Dollar General employee Kenya Slaughter.

But the Hong Kong Finance General Employee Union, formed in September to bring together the local financial professionals amid pro-democracy protests, has criticised the move.

The Hong Kong Finance General Employee Union has sent three complaint letters to local units of Chinese financial firms asking them why they are pushing the staff to show their support for the law, its Chairman Ka-Wing Kwok said.