https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366641609/OCBC-rolls-out-generative-AI-training-for-wealth-advisors
Singapore’s OCBC Bank has launched a generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) training programme for its 900 wealth advisors in Singapore, in a bid to improve sales performance and client engagements.
The six-month training programme, which OCBC touted as a first of its kind for a bank in Singapore, uses large language models to simulate realistic customer scenarios. This allows advisors to hone their pitches and advisory skills on their work devices at their own pace, rather than waiting weeks for a supervisor’s availability.
Within the first three months of its implementation, wealth advisors who went through the training secured twice as many weekly client appointments as peers who had not yet used the programme. They also recorded a 50% uplift in revenue compared with the three months prior.
Previously, skills training was conducted in-person and one-on-one. Because supervisors have to juggle their own duties while coaching up to 10 staff members, wealth advisors could wait up to three weeks just to secure a training session. This traditional method also risked inconsistent evaluation standards and feedback quality across different managers.
Developed over 12 months, the programme uses the bank’s anonymised proprietary data on customer behaviour to generate dynamic, lifelike role play scenarios.
The AI responds naturally to the advisor, mimicking a real client looking to build a long-term investment portfolio, identify their risk profile, or adjust strategies amid market movements.
The system removes the emotional bias of human-led coaching while ensuring that all advisors are consistently trained to meet strict regulatory and professional standards.
Following each simulated session, supervisors will receive a GenAI gap-analysis report detailing the advisor’s competency levels and highlighting specific areas for improvement. This allows managers to deliver highly targeted, in-person coaching to close those skills gaps.
Sunny Quek, OCBC’s head of global consumer financial services, said the programme helps advisors quickly grasp complex product knowledge and financial industry regulations.
“In wealth management, these experiences are especially crucial because advisory requires empathy, judgement and trust – qualities that only human advisors can bring,” said Quek. “By marrying AI precision with the human touch, we ensure our advisors are not just well-trained, but future-ready for customers’ growing sophistication in their wealth management needs.”
For advisors on the ground, the flexibility of the tool has been a major draw. Ng Zuolin, an OCBC wealth advisor, said the platform has accelerated her learning curve since entering the banking industry.
“With the GenAI training programme, I can practice the scenarios on my own, and as many times as possible, to pick up wealth advisory skills more quickly to serve customers better,” she said. “Plus, with the feedback from the GenAI training, my supervisor can identify my weaknesses and help me tackle them faster during our in-person training sessions.”
OCBC’s wealth advisors serve a broad spectrum of retail banking customers, ranging from personal banking clients with assets under management (AUM) of under S$350,000 to Private Premier clients with AUM exceeding S$1.5m.
The bank plans to roll out the GenAI programme to its markets in Malaysia and Hong Kong at a later stage. The training content, customer scenarios and learning pathways will be localised to reflect specific regulatory requirements, products and customer behaviours in those jurisdictions.
15 Apr 2026