How do UBS's US financial advisors use AI?
UBS's AI in American wealth management centers on STAAT, the Smart Technologies and Advanced Analytics Team inside Global Wealth Management US. Its insights engine flags external cash, a house listing or a network connection to a prospect and sends briefings before client meetings; UBS says some advisors have saved three to four hours per meeting. Chief data and analytics officer Joe Cordeira said in December 2025 that about 80% of US advisors use STAAT Insights, Copilot usage tops 85%, a guidelines chatbot handles about 20,000 prompts a month and advisors save about 10,000 hours a month; the 2025 annual report counts more than 20 million AI-driven insights delivered to US advisors. In April 2026 Ermotti said nearly 90% of advisor teams use the flagship platform, which the Financial Times' PWM Wealth Tech Awards named best US wealth firm for use of AI; Celent gave it a 2026 Model Wealth Manager award. In July 2026 head of AI product Richard James said agents send advisors thousands of alerts a day and, once an advisor approves, can execute trades and money transfers. Cordeira said in September 2026 that the hard part is adoption, which UBS has won through 'hand-to-hand combat' in the field. Not disclosed: revenue attributed to STAAT, or any client-facing generative AI in the US.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
Data as of Oct 16, 2026 · UBS profile updated Oct 13, 2026 · 16 sources cited on this page · 140 banks profiled on this site · Markdown
Which AI tools do UBS's US financial advisors have?
US wealth tools first, then group tools US advisors also use. 'Since' is the earliest dated mention in the sources.
| Tool | What it does | Scope | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| STAAT Insights | Machine-learning alerts on client and prospect events (external assets, house listings, maturing CDs, non-profit board connections) and automated pre-meeting briefings; about 400 scenarios | US wealth | Described January 2026; scenario count December 2025[1][2] |
| Advisor agents | Gather meeting, account and e-mail information, send thousands of alerts a day (for example a maturing annuity) and, after the advisor decides, execute trades and transfers | US wealth | July 2026[7][8] |
| Branch-guidelines chatbot | Answers advisors' questions over thousands of internal guideline articles, about 20,000 prompts a month | US wealth | December 2025[2] |
| Meeting-scheduling agent and Copilot summaries | Distributes advisor availability in one click; Copilot meeting summaries said to save 20 to 30 minutes per client meeting | US wealth | December 2025[2] |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | General productivity assistant; usage among US advisors above 85% | Group-wide | All employees by October 2025[2][10] |
| Red | In-house assistant on Azure OpenAI with access to UBS products, research and CIO reports | Group-wide | 52,000 users by July 2025; 85,000-plus by October 2025[11][10] |
What results has UBS reported from AI for its US advisors?
All figures are UBS's own; none has been independently audited.
| Metric | Value | As of | Who said it |
|---|---|---|---|
| US advisors using STAAT Insights | About 80% | December 2025 | Joe Cordeira, Financial Planning[2] |
| Advisor teams using the flagship AI platform | Nearly 90% | April 2026 | Sergio Ermotti, 1Q26 call[4] |
| AI-driven insights delivered to US advisors | Over 20 million in 2025 | December 31, 2025 | 2025 Form 20-F[3] |
| Time saved on meeting preparation | About 10,000 hours a month (estimate); three to four hours per client meeting for some advisors | December 2025; January 2026 | Cordeira; UBS advisor-recruiting page[2][1] |
| Advisor time with clients | 70%, which UBS attributes to AI | July 2026 | UBS, via Reuters[7] |
| Awards | FT PWM Wealth Tech Awards: Best Wealth Management Firm for Use of AI in the US; Celent 2026 Model Wealth Manager for Data, Analytics and AI | April and July 2026 | UBS results releases[5][6] |
| Advisors in the Americas | 5,772 at year-end 2025, down 3.3% year on year | December 31, 2025 | Financial Planning[12] |
What has UBS said about getting advisors to use AI, and what are the limits?
Cordeira, speaking at the Next Endeavor event in September 2026, said UBS 'honestly thought: if we build it, they will come', but advisors who receive hundreds of e-mails a day did not change three-decade habits on the strength of announcements. 'We've actually had most success with hand-to-hand combat,' he said, with people in the field helping advisors use the tools. He called regulation something that slows progress but is 'a core principle of how UBS operates'.[9]
UBS also uses AI as a recruiting argument: its advisor-recruiting page markets 'the UBS AI advantage' and says 'we believe advisors using UBS AI grow faster than advisors who don't', without publishing the comparison. The tools sit inside UBS Financial Services, which FinCEN fined $125 million in August 2026 for unremedied anti-money-laundering failures, so any AI in US monitoring and client surveillance will be examined as remediation.[1][13]
Not on the record: a client-facing generative AI assistant for US wealth clients, revenue or net new assets attributed to STAAT, the models behind the advisor agents, or error and override rates for agent-executed trades.[7][1]
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 | [14][6][2] |
| STAAT proactive insights for US advisors | Machine-learning alerts on external assets, life events and network connections. | In production | [1] |
| Advisor agents for alerts and execution | Agents send thousands of daily alerts from meetings, accounts and e-mail; after an advisor decides, they can trade and complete transfers. | In production | [7] |
| Branch guidelines chatbot and meeting agents | A chatbot over thousands of internal guideline articles (roughly 20,000 advisor prompts a month), a meeting-scheduling agent, and Copilot meeting summaries said to save 20 to 30 minutes per client meeting. | In production | [2] |
| Date | Move | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 22, 2026 | Ermotti at the Bank of America conference | The CEO says UBS has a leading position in AI through Stat, its US advisor tool, which won an FT award, and that AI will cut costs but 'is not for free'. | [15] |
| Aug 10, 2026 | Investment in Finster AI | UBS Investment Bank joins Finster's Series B with FactSet for AI-native research and advisory workflows. | [16] |
| Jul 13, 2026 | Advisor agents described to Reuters | Head of AI product Richard James says advisor agents send thousands of alerts a day and, once an advisor approves, can execute trades and money transfers; UBS says AI lets advisors spend 70% of their time with clients. | [7] |
| Apr 29, 2026 | First-quarter call: US award for AI in wealth management | Ermotti cites the FT Wealth Tech Awards' best US wealth firm for use of AI; nearly 90% of financial-advisor teams use the flagship AI platform; UBS Bank USA converted to a national bank charter. | [4] |
| 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. | [3] |
| Feb 24, 2026 | US wealth head of field named | Lisa Golia becomes head of field for US wealth management from 1 March, reporting to Michael Camacho, who is to focus on the full-service bank, feeder channels and differentiated solutions. The Americas ended 2025 with 5,772 advisors. | [12] |
| Dec 1, 2025 | US data chief describes advisor AI | Joe Cordeira says about 80% of US advisors use STAAT Insights (400 scenarios), Copilot usage is above 85%, a branch-guidelines chatbot handles roughly 20,000 prompts a month, a meeting-scheduling agent is live and advisors save an estimated 10,000 hours a month. | [2] |
What is UBS STAAT?
The Smart Technologies and Advanced Analytics Team in UBS Global Wealth Management US. It builds the insights engine that alerts US financial advisors to client events such as external cash, a house listing or a maturing CD, finds warm introductions to prospects through networks, and sends automated briefings before client meetings. UBS markets it to advisors as 'the UBS AI advantage'.
Can UBS's AI agents trade for clients?
Only after an advisor decides. Richard James, UBS's head of AI product, said in July 2026 that agents gather information from meetings, accounts and e-mail, send advisors thousands of alerts a day, and, once an advisor makes a decision with the client, can execute trades and money transfers. UBS has not published error or override rates.
How many UBS advisors use AI?
About 80% of US advisors used STAAT Insights and more than 85% used Copilot, per chief data and analytics officer Joe Cordeira in December 2025. In April 2026 CEO Sergio Ermotti said nearly 90% of financial-advisor teams use the flagship AI platform. The Americas had 5,772 advisors at the end of 2025.
Has UBS won awards for wealth management AI?
Yes. The Financial Times' Professional Wealth Management Wealth Tech Awards named UBS the Best Wealth Management Firm for Use of AI in the US, cited in the first-quarter 2026 results, and its US flagship AI-insights platform received Celent's 2026 Model Wealth Manager award for Data, Analytics and AI, cited in the second-quarter 2026 results.
Do UBS wealth clients in the US get an AI assistant?
Not on the public record. UBS's disclosed US wealth AI is advisor-facing: STAAT insights, a guidelines chatbot, scheduling and alert agents, Copilot and Red. UBS has not announced a client-facing generative AI assistant for US wealth clients in the sources reviewed.
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- Fincen fines UBS $125M for money laundering recidivism
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