UBS demands new junior bankers show AI proficiency

UBS is demanding that prospective junior investment bankers show proficiency in AI as a hiring requirement, in a sign of how the technology is reshaping graduate recruitment at some of Europe’s biggest lenders.

The Swiss group is requiring prospective graduates and interns joining its global banking and markets divisions in 2027 to demonstrate how they can use AI to “improve outcomes and efficiency”, according to people familiar with the matter.

The new stipulation sits alongside more traditional requirements such as being on track to obtain a 2.1 undergraduate degree, making UBS one of the first major financial institutions to explicitly require AI literacy for junior bankers.

The move highlights how AI skills are becoming a prerequisite for traditional banking roles as well as for technology and data jobs, as lenders increasingly deploy the tools for routine work historically carried out by junior employees, from financial analysis and research to preparing client presentations.

One person familiar with UBS’s move said AI “fluency” questions would be added to recruitment interviews for graduate trainees and interns, testing candidates on how they have used the technology.

Spain’s Santander has also explicitly sought “advanced AI users” for some graduate programmes in its corporate and investment bank, according to company filings.

The new demands come amid warnings of widespread job losses across the banking industry as advances in the new technology allow lenders to automate more work.

Morgan Stanley analysts recently forecast that more than 200,000 European banking jobs were under threat over the next five years as lenders embrace AI and close more branches.

Some executives have cautioned that banks must ensure junior staff still learn the fundamentals as the technology takes over more routine tasks.

Conor Hillery, JPMorgan Chase’s co-head for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said at the FT’s global banking summit in December that lenders needed to be “very careful” that employees did not “lose an understanding of the basics and fundamentals”. He added that JPMorgan was trying to balance using AI to expedite basic tasks with training juniors in traditional core banking skills.

UBS has itself been experimenting with the technology in novel ways, including creating avatars of analysts that can deliver video presentations to clients, which the lender has said will free up staff to focus on more productive tasks.

One person familiar with UBS’s move said the AI proficiency requirement would also apply to other newly advertised roles across the firm.

UBS said: “We continuously review our recruitment criteria to ensure they reflect the skills we need. As AI is fundamentally reshaping financial services, AI capabilities and experiences have become an important aspect of future professional success and are as such relevant recruiting criteria.

“AI literacy complements, rather than replaces, the academic, analytical and interpersonal skills that remain core to our approach to hiring talent.”