UBS: AI & ML at primary level, but data drives all decisions
Switzerland’s global investment bank uses technology for an agile transformation:
Switz er land’ s multinational investment bank UBS Group is one global financial services institution where cutting-edge digital solutions and innovation helped to focus on products and services that are highly customer centric and delivered on-time in a highly personalized manner. The world’s top wealth manager has built in technology into its strategy and uses its prowess to be a differentiator and facilitate an agile transformation. It believes adoption of agile will help it offer products that are highly customized to the needs of the customers in a quicker manner and at the same time afford them a data-centric, omni-channel and self-service experience.
UBS has deployed small, multidisciplinary teams which it calls agile pods to create a strong foundation for an agile way of working. Some 20,000 employees are part of the agile pods system and this set-up is now being complemented by larger agile teams to achieve alignment and consistency.
VARIED USE OF AI, ML
The investment bank is also a leader among the banking community in making use of AI and ML. Making use of the skillsets of its innovation teams, it is continuously bringing more automation and personalization into its platforms. Its use of AI and ML is primary as ultimately use data drives all decisions. Using AI and ML, the bank has developed best in class recommendation engines for its customer and staff. AI is also extensively used in the processes of fraud detection and compliance, besides risk management and managing human talent. In fact, it is a suite of technologies like ML, deep learning, speech recognition and image processing.
At the customer level, AI-powered chatbots are helping handle customer queries and AI-based banking applications help suggest targeted financial products to the customers. The tools can also automate processes like managing efficiencies, offer more personalized experiences use algorithmic predictions for wealth and portfolio management, market sentiment analysis and loan disbursement decisions.
VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS
The bank has, in partnership with IBM and Digital Humans, created a virtual financial assistant for its customers. It is a conversational interface built with IBM’s Watson Natural Language Understanding solution. Digital Humans provided the 3D character model for the solution, which represents the assistant on-screen. There are 2 distinct digital help centers. One is called Fin, which is built for managing simple tasks such as helping a customer cancel and replace a credit card. The second is Daniel, which can answer investment questions.
CLOUD IS CRUCIAL
UBS is also an early adopter of cloud computing, realizing the power of the cloud with which the bank can support clients with leading edge digital solutions. More than 50% of its computing is between private and public cloud. The bank claims cloud has been the basis for a fundamental transformation. It developed a strategy sometime in 2018 to move within 4 years toward a cloud setup with 1/3 of applications hosted in on-premises private cloud solutions, 1/3 in the public cloud, and 1/3 remaining on the mainframe / dedicated infrastructure. It entered into a partnership with Microsoft for the Microsoft Cloud in Switzerland. Now more than 50% of the bank’s compute power is delivered in the cloud.
The bank’s Chief Digital and Information Officer Mike Dargan says cloud is not just another place where the bank hosts software and data. Cloud, he says, represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fundamentally change how the bank operates. “It lets us reinvigorate our estate, enables greater agility for our engineers and prompts us to reimagine how we will build our applications for our clients,” he points out.
GATEWAY TO DIGITAL BANKING
One key offering of UBS is UBS key4, which is the new generation gateway to digital banking. Initially, UBS key4 primarily targeted new clients in Switzerland who want to carry out their banking transactions entirely digitally. The new product line is integrated into the existing UBS Mobile Banking App and comprises a basic digital offering with a personal account, 2 savings accounts (one of which is sustainable), a prepaid card with attractive exchange rates and mobile payment options, as well as a debit card, UBS TWINT and UBS KeyClub. The one-app approach allows all existing UBS Mobile Banking users to benefit from the improved user experience and a fresh look & feel going forward.
In 2020, UBS launched its UBS Next, $200 million strong portfolio that targets investments in the fintech and broader tech ecosystem. UBS Next focuses on enabling UBS’s key strategic priorities like codeveloping digital innovation and ecosystem through partnerships, research and innovation pipeline management, facilitated by centers of excellence; modernizing and modularizing technical estates, leveraging new technologies, such as public cloud, microservices architecture, and AI; and finding new and effective ways to engage with clients and deliver its services, as well as evolving its business model to drive growth across UBS with cutting-edge technologies and solutions. UBS Next primarily pursues direct investments into early stage fintechs and other relevant tech companies.
This article has been compiled based on publicly available information on the web, particularly the bank’s own website.