The bank's head of innovation discussed various ways that the Swiss bank is looking to use artificial intelligence.

The head of innovation at UBS Group has admitted the firm is expanding its workforce in artificial intelligence, according to Bloomberg. It is unknown how much this will affect the wealth management arm of the firm.

Veronica Lange, who is head of innovation at Switzerland’s biggest bank, spoke to the newswire, whilst in Moscow, about how the firm is looking to use AI.

“We’re currently recruiting more people for artificial intelligence,” Lange was quoted as saying. “These are data scientists, architects, business analysts. We’ve built up a pipeline of projects over the past few years. We believe it’s really fundamental, because the future is in the cognitive bank.”

According to the newswire, Lange said that fraud prevention, optimization and risk management are areas where the technology could be applied. She didn’t say how many people the bank wants to hire within the AI operation.

AI is rapidly growing within the banking sector, including the wealth management sector. This publication reported in October, that Finantix, which provides components that are designed to boost sales and advice in financial services, had launched an AI offering called Finantix AI Gears for Wealth.  And also in October, WealthBriefing reported on a Schwab Advisor Services survey, which found three-quarters of advisors (78 per cent) are sanguine about AI, saying it doesn’t pose a competitive threat to current ways of doing business.

On 7 December, in London, WealthBriefing, in conjunction with Finantix and EY, is holding a breakfast Briefing: Applying Artificial Intelligence in Wealth Management - Compelling Use Cases Across the Client Life Cycle, if you are interested in attending, please click here.