What AI research, patents and partnerships does UBS have?
UBS's AI partnerships are group-level and Microsoft-centered. Its Red assistants run on Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Search, which Microsoft said reached 30,000 UBS employees by December 2024; the bank digitized about 60,000 investment documents for them, and a 2022 cloud deal that aims to run more than 50% of applications on Azure included co-developing an open-source Carbon Aware API. Analyst video avatars use OpenAI and Synthesia models (2025). Research runs through the Oxford-UBS Centre for Applied AI, announced December 9, 2025 with an endowed professorship and 20 researchers and officially launched in the second quarter of 2026, and the UBS-IDSIA AI Lab, which pairs 20 IDSIA researchers with 100 UBS specialists. UBS has put money into AI suppliers: an equity stake in Domino Data Lab (August 2025), the platform under its RiskLab; Finster AI's Series B (August 2026); Synthesized's $20 million Series A (September 2025); and Trust & Will's $25 million Series C (March 2025), which the estate-planning firm said would fund AI. In July 2026 it agreed a partnership with MSCI to expand MSCI's AI-powered private-markets platform. Patents are thin: two granted US machine-learning patents assigned to UBS Business Solutions AG, from 2022 and 2023, and none found under UBS Bank USA.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]
Data as of Oct 16, 2026 · UBS profile updated Oct 13, 2026 · 21 sources cited on this page · 140 banks profiled on this site · Markdown
Who are UBS's AI partners, and which AI companies has it invested in?
Group-level unless stated. Investment amounts are round sizes as published; UBS does not disclose the size of its own stakes.
| Partner | Type | What it is | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Azure (cloud) | Cloud | 2018 agreement to move a third of applications to public cloud, met early; expanded in 2022 to more than 50% of applications, including critical workloads, on Azure within five years, with co-developed innovations such as the open-source Carbon Aware API | October 2022[3] |
| Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Search | Model and platform provider | Powers the Red assistants across five divisions; 60,000 investment documents digitized; an internal AI Hub and data mesh; 30,000 employees reached by December 2024 | February 2025[2][1] |
| OpenAI and Synthesia | Model providers | AI-generated scripts and video avatars of research analysts; 36-plus of 720 analysts signed up by May 2025 | May 2025[4] |
| Domino Data Lab | Investment and platform | UBS-led equity investment with a board observer seat; Domino underpins RiskLab, UBS's AI model development and validation platform | August 21, 2025[8] |
| Finster AI (with FactSet) | Investment | UBS Investment Bank joins the Series B for AI-native research and advisory workflows | August 10, 2026[9] |
| Synthesized | Investment | UBS participates in a $20 million Series A, led by Redalpine, for an AI software-testing and test-data company | September 24, 2025[10] |
| Trust & Will (US) | Investment | UBS joins a $25 million Series C, led by Moderne Ventures, in a San Diego estate-planning platform that said the money would 'double down on artificial intelligence' | March 11, 2025[11] |
| MSCI | Strategic partnership | Expand MSCI's AI-powered private-markets platform; UBS's Unified Global Alternatives unit contributes LP expertise and UBS is an early adopter | July 9, 2026[12][6] |
Where does UBS do AI research?
No UBS research-paper program was found in the sources reviewed; research runs through academic partnerships, a leadership program and internal challenges.
| Program | What it is | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Oxford-UBS Centre for Applied AI | With Oxford Saïd and the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences division; a newly endowed UBS Professor for Applied AI and 20 researchers working on AI and society, AI for business and the economy, and AI futures | Announced December 9, 2025; officially launched 2Q26[5][6] |
| UBS-IDSIA AI Lab | Group-wide research and innovation network of 20 researchers from the Swiss IDSIA institute and 100 UBS business-domain specialists | Undated page, retrieved 2026[7] |
| AI Senior Leadership Journey at Oxford Saïd | About 250 senior leaders including the Group Executive Board on a program covering AI transformation and ethical governance | 2H 2025[15][16] |
| AI Kettle challenges | Internal competitions: 800 participants from 15 countries and nearly 300 solutions in the 2024 FX challenge; 1,000 participants in 10 days for the 2025 agentic AI challenge | 2024-2025[17] |
| Global banking AI lab | Run by Ronald Jansen for seven years until he left for JPMorgan in early 2026; Jansen is a named inventor on a UBS random-forest patent | Left February 2026[18][13] |
What AI patents does UBS hold?
Few, on the public record. Google Patents shows two granted US machine-learning patents assigned to UBS Business Solutions AG, a Swiss group entity: US 11,775,887 B2, a method for generating predictions about management arrangements from data with varied temporal characteristics using random forest classifiers (granted October 3, 2023; inventors include Ronald Jansen, later head of the global banking AI lab), and US 11,429,879 B2, a method for identifying dynamic thematic relationships over time with machine-learning models (granted August 30, 2022).[13][14]
Searches in October 2026 for machine learning, neural network, language model and artificial intelligence under UBS assignees found no generative-AI or agent filings and nothing assigned to UBS Bank USA. UBS's own AI disclosures emphasize partnerships, platforms and use cases rather than intellectual property.[13][7]
What does the UBS profile record on this topic?
The rows below are the entries of the UBS AI strategy profile that bear on this page, as of Oct 13, 2026; the profile holds the full record of 28 dated moves, 14 use cases and 35 sources.
| Use case | What the record shows | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI-native investment-banking research (Finster) | Briefing decks, modelling and sector monitoring through an invested partner. | Announced | [9] |
| RiskLab model development and validation (Domino) | An auditable AI model-development platform built on Domino Data Lab, being rolled out across the bank. | Rolling out | [8] |
| AI avatars of research analysts | Digital twins delivering AI-generated research scripts to clients; more than 36 of 720 analysts had signed up by May 2025, using OpenAI and Synthesia models. | In production | [19][4] |
| Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Search | Platform behind the Red assistants and a queryable knowledge base of about 60,000 investment-advice and product documents; Microsoft Azure is named as a strategic AI partner. | In production | [1][7] |
| Date | Move | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 10, 2026 | Investment in Finster AI | UBS Investment Bank joins Finster's Series B with FactSet for AI-native research and advisory workflows. | [9] |
| Dec 9, 2025 | Oxford–UBS Centre for Applied AI | A research partnership with the University of Oxford. | [5] |
| Oct 24, 2025 | Executive board reshaped around technology | Dargan to become group CTO from January 2026 with AI and digital assets in his remit. | [20] |
| Aug 21, 2025 | Equity investment in Domino Data Lab | UBS leads an investment in the provider behind RiskLab, its AI model development and validation platform, which is to be rolled out across the bank. | [8] |
| May 15, 2025 | AI avatars of analysts sent to clients | Scripts and digital twins built with OpenAI and Synthesia, driven by client demand for research video. | [19] |
| Apr 10, 2025 | AI executive joins the board | Shareholders elect Lila Tretikov, a partner at New Enterprise Associates and former Deputy CTO of Microsoft, to the UBS Board of Directors at the annual general meeting. | [21] |
| Dec 31, 2024 | Azure OpenAI Service reaches 30,000 UBS employees | Microsoft says its Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Search power UBS's Red assistants and had been rolled out to 30,000 employees as of December 2024, across wealth management, personal and corporate banking and group operations. The page is undated; the figure is as of December 2024. | [1] |
Does UBS use OpenAI or Microsoft models?
Both, through Microsoft. UBS's Red assistants run on Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Search, Microsoft 365 Copilot is available to all employees, and its research-analyst video avatars use OpenAI and Synthesia models. UBS says it works with several hyperscalers and frontier AI developers and its Claves platform routes across models, but no direct Anthropic or Google model contract appears in the sources reviewed.
What is the Oxford-UBS Centre for Applied AI?
A research partnership between UBS and the University of Oxford, announced December 9, 2025 and officially launched in the second quarter of 2026. It is led by a newly endowed UBS Professor for Applied AI at Oxford Saïd, has 20 researchers, and works on AI and society, AI for business and the economy, and AI futures, with joint projects alongside UBS practitioners.
Which AI companies has UBS invested in?
Disclosed stakes include Domino Data Lab (a UBS-led equity investment in August 2025, with a board observer seat), Finster AI (Series B, August 2026), Synthesized (part of a $20 million Series A, September 2025) and Trust & Will (part of a $25 million Series C, March 2025). UBS does not disclose the size of its individual investments.
How many AI patents does UBS have?
Very few on the public record. Google Patents shows two granted US machine-learning patents assigned to UBS Business Solutions AG, a random-forest prediction method granted in October 2023 and a thematic-relationships method granted in August 2022. None was found under UBS Bank USA.
Is UBS's US bank part of these partnerships?
Indirectly. The partnerships, investments and research centers are group-level. Of those listed, Trust & Will is a US estate-planning platform, and the Microsoft tools reach US employees, but no partnership has been announced specifically by UBS Bank USA.
- UBS and Microsoft unite: co-creating the future of banking with Azure AI (undated; figures as of December 2024)
- UBS and Microsoft partner to advance AI in banking
- UBS to have 50% of applications running in Microsoft Azure cloud
- European bank UBS is seeing strong demand for AI-generated video avatars of its analysts
- The University of Oxford and UBS join forces to launch the Oxford-UBS Centre for Applied AI
- UBS reports 2Q26 net profit of USD 2.8bn and USD 5.8bn for 1H26 (Business Wire)
- Innovation and AI at UBS (undated page, retrieved 2026-10-13)
- UBS Invests in Domino Data Lab, Deepening Strategic Partnership to Drive Next Wave of Enterprise AI Innovation
- Finster AI secures investment from UBS to advance AI innovation in investment banking
- AI software testing startup Synthesized receives $20 million Series A venture round
- Online estate planning firm Trust & Will raises $25 million in funding round that includes Northwestern Mutual, UBS
- MSCI and UBS announce strategic partnership to bring greater transparency to private markets
- US11775887B2: Methods and systems for processing data having varied temporal characteristics to generate predictions related to management arrangements using random forest classifiers
- US11429879B2: Methods and systems for identifying dynamic thematic relationships as a function of time
- UBS reports 2Q25 net profit of USD 2.4bn and USD 4.1bn for 1H25 with integration remaining on track
- UBS reports strong results in 3Q25 with continued progress on integration
- Our AI Kettle is ready to boil
- JPMorgan hired the head of UBS' AI lab to assess employee performance
- Executives Using AI Avatars Face a Patchwork of Regulations
- UBS revamps leadership with tech, AI in mind
- UBS Group AG Annual Report 2025 on Form 20-F
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