This is the Trace Id: 46ef6d43524018cb2a6e5c72d7121f10
1/27/2025

UBS and Microsoft unite: Co-creating the future of banking with Azure AI

UBS faced challenges in delivering personalized insights to clients due to complex workflows and content systems, hindering efficiency in providing comprehensive financial services solutions and timely, tailored advice to its clientele.

UBS selected Microsoft Azure AI solutions, including Azure AI Search and Azure OpenAI Service, to power “Smart Assistants” that streamline content access and provide real-time information to Client Advisors, boosting efficiency and client engagement.

UBS has deployed Azure solutions across five divisions and accelerated digital transformation. With Azure AI and cloud services, it enhanced operational efficiency and data insights, leading AI-driven innovation across the financial services industry.

UBS

UBS — a 10-time “Switzerland’s Best Bank” award winner for the leading universal bank in its home market and a five-time “World’s Best Bank for Wealth Management” award winner—stands at the forefront of financial services, dedicated to delivering exceptional value to its clients. Recently, it faced a critical inflection point: harnessing its vast reservoir of internal data and market insights to catapult client service into the future. This was about reimagining financial services for the digital age.

To maintain its industry-leading position, UBS needed to build a platform that enhanced compliance, efficiency, and set new benchmarks. The vision was clear: empower Client Advisors with lightning-fast access to personalized insights, meeting and exceeding the ever-evolving expectations of a global clientele.

The path to digital transformation was complex, as off-the-shelf solutions fell short of UBS’s unique needs. The bank required a technology partner that could offer both cutting-edge capabilities and flexibility to tailor solutions to its specific requirements.

Lukasz Opoka, Head of Analytics and Sales Platform of Wealth Management and Personal & Corporate Banking at UBS, articulates the rationale behind this pivotal collaboration: “The collaboration between UBS and Microsoft was driven by our need for flexibility and a robust technological roadmap. Standard out-of-the-box solutions would not work for us. Microsoft Azure allowed us to customize our platform and significantly enhance our service offerings. Moreover, Microsoft's investments in building secure, local datacenters in Switzerland, and its willingness to strengthen the security policies for us, were fundamental enablers.”

The collaboration between UBS and Microsoft was driven by our need for flexibility and a robust technological roadmap. Standard out-of-the-box solutions would not work for us.

Lukasz Opoka, Head of Analytics and Sales Platform of Wealth Management and Personal & Corporate Banking, UBS

With the advanced capabilities of Microsoft Azure, UBS set out to position the bank at the vanguard of wealth management as well as the retail and corporate banking innovation in its home market.

The road ahead promised to transform the vast data resources UBS has accumulated into a strategic asset, giving the bank the tools to navigate the complexities of global finance with unprecedented agility and insight. The stage was set for a new era in banking—where data-driven decisions and AI-powered insights would redefine the boundaries of what’s possible in financial services.

Modernizing the data platform with AI

UBS embarked on its journey using the Microsoft Azure AI platform to create exceptional generative AI experiences rooted in its own proprietary data. This approach enabled UBS to develop contextual interactions that significantly enhanced its service offerings, fully capitalizing on the flexibility and customization capabilities of Azure.

At the core of this transformation are two domain-specific AI assistants, collectively known as UBS Red. Developed using Azure AI Search and Azure OpenAI Service, these AI-powered tools provide support to Client Advisors during customer interactions. UBS Red offers multi-language capabilities, improving efficiency in addressing client needs.

Michel Neuhaus, Head of AI, Data & Analytics of Personal & Corporate Banking at UBS, underscores the scale of the challenge: “The internal information that we have, the financial expertise, the insights into financial markets, what’s happening in the world, it’s vast. We have to find ways to make this content easily accessible to each and everyone in the bank, and Microsoft helps us with that.” This immense repository of data presented both an opportunity and a challenge for UBS.

The internal information that we have, the financial expertise, the insights into financial markets, what's happening in the world, it's vast. We have to find ways to make this content easily accessible to each and everyone in the bank, and Microsoft helps us with that.

Michel Neuhaus, Head of AI, Data & Analytics of Personal & Corporate Banking, UBS

To address this wealth of information, UBS created a queryable knowledge base. Claire Corish, Head of Analytics and Sales Platforms of the Operations and Technology Office at UBS, explains, “We’ve digitized approximately 60,000 investment advice and product documents. This queryable knowledge base built on Azure is now easily accessible to our employees, saving considerable time in meeting preparation and research.”

The comprehensive suite of Azure services has facilitated reliable data delivery for generative AI initiatives at an enterprise scale, empowering UBS to establish an internal AI Hub for exploring new use cases. This modernization has been underpinned by advanced security, management, and operational features, ensuring the bank maintains its commitment to data protection and regulatory compliance.

We've digitized approximately 60,000 investment advice and product documents. This queryable knowledge base built on Azure is now easily accessible to our employees, saving considerable time in meeting preparation and research.

Claire Corish, Head of Analytics and Sales Platforms of Group Operations and Technology Office, UBS

Looking toward the future, Jonas Isliker, Head of AI, Data & Analytics of Global Wealth Management at UBS, says, “Our biggest priority is rapidly moving into AI transformation. While delivering flagship AI solutions like Red is crucial, it’s equally important to build a scalable organization that can accelerate the delivery of AI use cases. This involves implementing a data mesh, moving to the Azure cloud, establishing new AI risk governance, and creating AI factories for quicker, more agile solution delivery. These elements are essential in addition to meeting the growing demand for AI use cases across the organization.”

Azure AI Search was implemented to apply sophisticated search services, supporting advanced retrieval strategies and uncovering new insights from unstructured data using language model reasoning. The improved vector search capabilities made it possible to find information based on conceptual similarity across various data types, allowing UBS to extract more value from its vast data resources and leading to improved decision-making and client service.

The alliance between UBS and Microsoft, supported by the Microsoft ISE (Industry Solutions Engineering) team, was crucial in developing UBS Red. This collaboration has enhanced client engagement and internal processes while showcasing the power of teamwork in driving innovation and improving service delivery in the financial sector.

Accelerating operations

The journey for UBS and Microsoft exemplifies how strategic collaboration can address complex business challenges. By combining UBS expertise in financial services with the robust cloud infrastructure and AI capabilities of Azure, a solution was developed that not only meets current needs but is also poised to adapt and grow with future demands.

The transformation catalyzed by this collaboration extends beyond immediate operational improvements. It has positioned UBS at the forefront of technological innovation in the financial sector, creating a foundation for continued growth and adaptation in an increasingly digital landscape. 

While delivering flagship AI solutions like Red is crucial, it's equally important to build a scalable organization that can accelerate the delivery of AI use cases. This involves implementing a data mesh, moving to the Azure cloud, establishing new AI risk governance, and creating AI factories for quicker, more agile solution delivery.

Jonas Isliker, Head of AI, Data & Analytics of Global Wealth Management, UBS

Digital innovation and financial services

The impact of the UBS initiative has significantly expanded the Azure OpenAI Service footprint across the bank. Within 10 months, Azure OpenAI Service reached the key divisions Personal & Corporate Banking, Wealth Management Switzerland, Global Wealth Management, and Group Operations and Technology Office within UBS in the Booking Centers Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and has already been rolled out to 30,000 employees as of December 2024.

The impact of this initiative has been profound and far-reaching. What began as a targeted solution for specific use cases has blossomed into a catalyst for widespread digital innovation across the bank. The success of UBS Red has spurred the modernization of its entire data platform, with reliable data being the cornerstone of effective generative AI applications.

The adoption of Azure OpenAI Service has been a key driver in the company’s transformation, with its provisioned throughput units (PTUs) helping ensure consistent and predictable performance for AI processing. PTUs represent reserved computational capacity that allows UBS to handle a specific number of tokens per second, essential for maintaining low latency and high throughput. By increasing its PTUs in significantly less than a year, UBS demonstrated its rapid expansion of AI capabilities across multiple divisions. This capability provides a seamless user experience with UBS Red, ultimately driving adoption across the entire bank.

The comprehensive suite of Azure services has facilitated reliable data delivery for generative AI initiatives at an enterprise scale, empowering UBS to establish an internal AI Lab for exploring new use cases. This modernization is underpinned by robust security, management, and operational features, ensuring that UBS maintains its commitment to data protection and regulatory compliance. With these advancements, UBS can deliver AI-driven insights to risk professionals while addressing the complex regulatory landscape of the financial industry. This version efficiently combines the information while emphasizing the importance of PTUs in enhancing user experience and driving adoption throughout UBS.

The UBS digital transformation, the fusion of industry expertise with cutting-edge technology, will shape the future of financial services. By building and modernizing AI applications on a trusted platform, UBS has accelerated business growth and brought innovative ideas to life, advancing the organization with industry-leading AI and cloud services.

This transformative journey not only positions UBS as a leader in the integration of AI in the financial industry but also serves as a blueprint for other financial institutions looking to harness the power of advanced technologies. As the financial services sector continues to evolve, its pioneering efforts in AI integration will likely influence industry-wide trends, potentially reshaping the future of banking on a global scale.

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