UBS, the largest wealth manager in the world, has confirmed it is expanding its partnership with enterprise AI platform provider Domino Data Lab.
The move underscores the bank’s goal to ramp up artificial intelligence across its operations while giving equal emphasis to governance and risk management to ensure that deployment occurs responsibly.
This strengthened relationship builds on a five-year partnership with RiskLab, UBS’s internal platform dedicated to AI model development. The bank has outlined its intention to extend this approach across its entire organisation in order to “drive efficiency and innovation,” according to Stephan Hug, head, group functions technology at UBS.
Hug described the investment as a strategic move to become an “AI-enabled institution,” using technology for “smarter, faster, and above all, more responsible innovation.”
Within financial services, firms continue to debate whether to build AI models internally or rely on third-party vendors.
UBS’s investment in the enterprise AI platform provider comes at a time when other major institutions are also accelerating their adoption of artificial intelligence. The global wealth management platform FNZ introduced FNZ Advisor AI, a generative AI solution that can help financial advisers to boost productivity and offer more personalized client advice.
The FNZ solution is designed to automate the client meeting cycle, from preparation to follow-up, by eliminating the need for repetitive administrative tasks. The company has also put in place measures to limit the risks associated with “AI hallucinations” and to ensure accuracy.
While FNZ focuses on an adviser-facing product, UBS invests in this enterprise AI platform from Domino Data Lab with a different strategy. UBS is concentrating on building an underlying AI infrastructure that supports the entire bank.
However, recent research suggests that even though every surveyed C-suite executive claims that their company is “AI-ready,” only 43 percent of them have a well-developed AI strategy. Among executives at firms generating more than £500 million in turnover, just over half (51 percent) had piloted AI solutions.
The report also found that AI adoption is being propelled more by short-term trials than by long-term planning.