What is UBS's AI strategy, and how does it apply to UBS in the US?
UBS sets AI strategy at group level in Zurich and applies it to its US businesses, chiefly the American wealth franchise behind UBS Bank USA. The group counted more than 280 live AI use cases in July 2025, 340 in October 2025, over 380 (with 780 in development) in February 2026, over 500 in April 2026 and 560 (with 920-plus in development) in July 2026. Alongside them run eight, then nine, 'large-scale, transformational' AI initiatives, the 'Big Rocks'. UBS finished 55,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licences in the first half of 2025 and by October 2025 said every employee had Copilot and its in-house assistant Red reached more than 85,000 staff. Daniele Magazzeni, from JPMorgan, became the first chief AI officer on 1 January 2026, running a Chief AI Office that sets strategy and governance while divisions deliver, and the group is consolidating onto one platform, UBS Claves. CEO Sergio Ermotti framed it in February 2026 as redesigning front- and back-office processes. In the US the visible result is advisor tooling: STAAT insights, which UBS says nearly 90% of advisor teams use, and agents that draft alerts and can execute trades after an advisor approves.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
Data as of Oct 16, 2026 · UBS profile updated Oct 13, 2026 · 18 sources cited on this page · 140 banks profiled on this site · Markdown
How has UBS's AI program grown quarter by quarter?
Group-wide figures from UBS's own results releases. They count the whole group, not UBS Bank USA; UBS does not break out a US number of use cases.
| Reported | Live use cases | Other disclosures | Source date |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 2024 (as reported by CNBC) | Not stated | UBS said it had 50,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licences | January 15, 2025[11] |
| 2Q25 results | Over 280, up about 10% from 1Q25 | 55,000 M365 Copilot licences implemented earlier in 2025; Red rolled out to 52,000 employees, general availability planned for the first half of 2026; 8 million prompts in the quarter, four times year-end 2024; coding tools targeting a 15% efficiency gain | July 29, 2025[1] |
| 3Q25 results | 340, after 60 new in the quarter | All employees have M365 Copilot; Red available to over 85,000 employees; 18 million prompts, nine times year-end 2024; eight transformational initiatives; 3,000 developers on AI code tooling | October 29, 2025[2] |
| 4Q25 and full-year results | Over 380, with a further 780 in development | Nine large-scale transformational AI initiatives; 'fundamentally rethinking and redesigning end-to-end processes' | February 4, 2026[3] |
| 1Q26 results | Over 500, with around 750 in development | Nine end-to-end transformational initiatives; FT PWM award for use of AI in US wealth management | April 29, 2026[4] |
| 2Q26 results | 560, up 92% year on year, with 920-plus in development | About 18,000 developers using AI; all employees can build their own agents; AI Power Hour launched | July 29, 2026[5] |
Who runs AI strategy at UBS and how is it organized?
Organization as UBS and the trade press describe it. All roles are group roles unless marked US.
| Item | What it is | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Chief AI Office (hub and spoke) | Sits in the Group Chief Operating Office; owns strategy, governance, regulatory engagement and AI capability enablement, while business divisions and group functions own delivery and outcomes | Described 2026[7] |
| Chief AI officer | Daniele Magazzeni, previously JPMorgan's chief analytics officer for EMEA and the commercial and investment bank and an AI academic at King's College London for more than 12 years; based in London; responsible for 'traditional, generative and agentic AI capabilities' | Appointed October 2025, in post January 1, 2026[6][12] |
| Reporting line | Group Technology and the Chief AI Office moved under Group COO Beatriz Martin from January 1, 2026, as technology chief Mike Dargan left to run N26 | December 2025[13][14] |
| UBS Claves | Single strategic AI platform with models from lightweight to frontier and automated routing to balance performance and token cost, plus evaluation for governance and value tracking | Described 2026[7] |
| Governance | Group AI policy; AI Operating & Risk Committee; principles of human autonomy, harm prevention, fairness and transparency; mandatory annual responsible-AI training for all employees | Described 2026[7] |
| US wealth (US) | Joe Cordeira, chief data and analytics officer of Global Wealth Management US, runs the data, analytics and AI behind STAAT; Richard James is head of AI product | December 2025; July 2026[15][10] |
What have UBS executives said about the AI strategy?
UBS's full-year 2025 results release said the firm has AI 'transformational projects that are designed to bolster our operational resilience, enhance client experience, and unlock higher levels of efficiency', and listed 'delivering AI solutions at scale' among the investments behind its 2028 ambitions. On the February 2026 call Ermotti said UBS is 'investing in a portfolio of large-scale transformational AI programs'.[3][8]
Mike Dargan, then group chief operations and technology officer, called AI 'a top priority for UBS' when Magazzeni was hired, saying the new chief AI officer would 'further optimise our use of traditional, generative and agentic AI capabilities to transform our end-to-end operations'. At the Bank of America conference in September 2026 Ermotti said UBS has 'a leading position' in AI and that AI will cut costs but is not free.[12][16]
What is not on the record: UBS does not publish an AI budget, a US-only count of use cases, or a dollar value for the nine transformational initiatives. The second-quarter 2026 release says only that UBS is deepening partnerships with 'hyperscalers, frontier AI developers, FinTechs, data and platform providers as well as academia'.[5]
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot and the in-house assistant Red | Rolled out to all employees; 300-plus live use cases across the group in October 2025, 560 by July 2026. US advisors report Copilot usage above 85%. | In production | [6][5][15] |
| Employee-built AI agents | All employees can now create their own agents; an AI Power Hour reserves one hour a week for skills building. | Rolling out | [5] |
| Date | Move | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 29, 2026 | Second quarter: 560 live use cases and a US AI award | UBS reports 560 live use cases, 920-plus in development, about 18,000 developers using AI and all employees able to build agents; its US flagship platform for AI-generated insights wins Celent's 2026 Model Wealth Manager award for Data, Analytics and AI. | [5] |
| Mar 9, 2026 | 20-F: 20 million STAAT insights for US advisors | The 2025 annual report counts over 20 million AI-driven insights delivered to US financial advisors, nine large-scale transformational AI initiatives, and AI brought inside the model-risk framework. | [17] |
| Feb 4, 2026 | 'Large-scale transformational AI programs' | Ermotti on redesigning front- and back-office processes; the global banking AI lab head leaves for JPMorgan. | [8] |
| Dec 15, 2025 | Group Technology moves under the Group COO | UBS announces that Group Technology will report to Group COO Beatriz Martin from 1 January 2026 to prioritise technology and AI initiatives, with Chris Gelvin as interim head. | [13] |
| Oct 16, 2025 | First chief AI officer appointed | Daniele Magazzeni to lead the Chief AI Office from 1 January 2026; 300-plus use cases; Copilot and Red for all employees. | [6] |
| Jul 29, 2025 | 280-plus live AI use cases | Second-quarter 2025 results: 'transformational AI initiatives', use cases up 10% quarter on quarter. | [18] |
How many AI use cases does UBS have live?
560 at group level as of the second-quarter 2026 results on July 29, 2026, up 92% year on year, with more than 920 further applications in development. The count was over 280 in July 2025, 340 in October 2025, over 380 at year-end 2025 and over 500 in April 2026. UBS does not publish a separate figure for UBS Bank USA or its American businesses.
What are UBS's 'Big Rocks'?
UBS's name for its large-scale, transformational AI initiatives, designed to redesign processes end to end rather than add tools at the edges. The October 2025 results counted eight; from the full-year 2025 results in February 2026 UBS has counted nine. It has not published the list of nine or what each costs.
Does every UBS employee have Microsoft Copilot?
Yes, according to UBS. It had 50,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licences by October 2024 according to CNBC, said it finished implementing 55,000 in the first half of 2025, and said in its third-quarter 2025 results that all employees now had access to Copilot, with its in-house assistant Red available to more than 85,000 employees.
Is UBS's AI strategy set in the US or in Switzerland?
In Switzerland and London, at group level. The Chief AI Office, the Claves platform, the group AI policy and the transformational initiatives are group-wide. US-specific AI is the wealth business's STAAT insights engine and advisor agents, run by UBS Global Wealth Management US, which UBS Bank USA supports as the deposit and lending bank.
Who is UBS's chief AI officer?
Daniele Magazzeni, appointed in October 2025 and in post since January 1, 2026. He was previously JPMorgan's chief analytics officer for EMEA and the commercial and investment bank and spent more than 12 years as an AI academic at King's College London. He is based in London and leads the Chief AI Office.
- 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
- UBS reports net profit of USD 1.2bn in 4Q25 and USD 7.8bn in FY25; confirms 2026 targets and sets ambitions for 2028
- UBS reports USD 3.0bn net profit and 16.8% RoCET1 in 1Q26; on track to complete integration by year-end
- UBS reports 2Q26 net profit of USD 2.8bn and USD 5.8bn for 1H26 (Business Wire)
- UBS appoints Chief AI Officer to drive its AI strategy
- Innovation and AI at UBS (undated page, retrieved 2026-10-13)
- UBS deploys AI programs to unlock efficiency
- UBS first-quarter 2026 earnings call prepared remarks and Q&A (Form 6-K)
- Wall Street banks ramp up digital assistants in bid to win productivity race
- Microsoft launches consumption-based 365 Copilot Chat option for corporate users
- UBS hires JP Morgan analytics chief Daniele Magazzeni to lead AI strategy
- Changes to UBS's Group Executive Board
- Neobank N26 hires UBS exec as next CEO
- Behind UBS' AI strategy to win wallet share, client leads
- UBS at Bank of America financials conference: growth meets capital pressure (transcript)
- UBS Group AG Annual Report 2025 on Form 20-F
- UBS revamps leadership with tech, AI in mind
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