AI is changing banking, UBS executive says

UBS is seeing a shift in the way clients are interacting with their bankers powered by artificial intelligence, according to the head of the Swiss bank’s domestic business Sabine Keller-Busse.

She likened the shift to the way in which patients go to the doctor’s with a picture of their ailment in mind, with clients using AI to come up with ideas they are then proposing to the bank.

“In our industry this will happen as well because with Chat GPT there is more data available,” Keller-Busse said at the Point Zero Forum in Zurich. “We have to be aware that our clients are using it.”

The Swiss bank has been weaving artificial intelligence into the services and products it offers its clients, going live last year with a pilot for instant credit geared towards small and mid-size companies which often have an urgent need for liquidity.

That service makes it possible to bypass credit officers and speed up the process for the relatively standard product, she said.

“It’s just the beginning of what we will see,” Keller-Busse said.