Bank launches AI courses for fresh grads, staff as it builds ‘AI-first’ culture
UOB is investing in people to power its AI ambitions, with initiatives including a centre of excellence for new tech hires
A bank teller notices a repetitive process which can be made more efficient with artificial intelligence (AI).
She can either collaborate with the bank’s data scientists – or use internal tools to streamline their workflow herself.
This is how Singapore bank UOB envisions operating under its “AI-first” culture, with ambitions to scale up AI integration by enhancing its workforce’s tech-savviness.
“It’s about every staff – who are closest to their process – going about their work and thinking AI-first, saying: I have this challenge; can AI help solve this?” said UOB’s head of enterprise AI and analytics transformation Alvin Eng.
“Every employee from front to middle to back office can benefit from having a better understanding of what AI can and cannot do,” said Eng, “because they are closest to their own processes.”
Driving the bank’s decision to invest in this AI-first culture are broad changes in the business landscape, including customer expectations of instant and personalised service, increasingly sophisticated fraud and money laundering tactics, and the complexity of growing a global operation.
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UOB has leveraged AI to tackle such challenges, deploying it in everything from investment management and portfolio optimisation, to cash replenishment at ATMs, personalised customer service and fraud detection.
“It’s about every staff – who are closest to their process – going about their work and thinking AI-first, saying: I have this challenge; can AI help solve this?”
Alvin Eng, UOB’s head of enterprise AI and analytics transformation
Training talent
To scale these ambitions further, the bank last month launched AIDA Academy, an internal platform that will offer e-learning modules on AI and data science for all UOB staff across the region. AIDA stands for artificial intelligence and data analytics.
UOB also recently unveiled its AIDA Centre of Excellence (AIDA CoE) programme, which will equip new tech hires with a “consistent baseline capability” to handle AI and data analytics, Eng said.
Entry to the two-year programme equates to a salaried role at the bank, with participants securing jobs in specific divisions.
The programme is run in partnership with the National University of Singapore (NUS), and the Infocomm Media Development Authority.
The CoE was conceptualised by core members of the AIDA Talent Consortium, a group of education, training and financial institutions – including UOB, NUS and the Monetary Authority of Singapore – that are working to develop a pipeline of AI talent for Singapore’s financial sector as part of Singapore’s broader AI strategy.
About 100 fresh university graduates from AIDA-related backgrounds – such as data science and engineering – will be accepted into the AIDA CoE programme over the next three years, Eng said.
Real use cases, real impact
With mentorship from UOB experts, participants will work on real AI projects in their divisions while learning data science topics such as statistics, predictive and text analytics, and responsible AI, taught by NUS faculty and sponsored by the bank.
Eng said the AIDA programme’s curriculum and talent development approach serves as an industry blueprint, as it helps train “true practitioners” of data science in the shortest time frame.
In typical training programmes, participants work with neatly prepared data samples, he noted. “It doesn’t replicate reality, so when you go into the real world, you fall short.”
“The idea is for participants to hit the ground running: They have a job from day one, and can apply what they know to real-use cases.”
This was produced in partnership with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Global Finance & Technology Network.
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