Singaporean bank UOB announced Wednesday an organization-wide artificial intelligence (AI) upskilling and reskilling initiative to future-proof its workforce.

The bank said in a statement that the program will create new opportunities and growth for employees while equipping them with the relevant skills and confidence to handle challenges as technological disruptions transform the nature of work in an AI-enabled economy.

Under the program, all employees will gain foundational Generative AI (GenAI) and automation skills that will help them to enhance productivity.

The bank is also developing talent in advanced digital roles such as data science and growing a network of innovation champions to lead by example in driving GenAI adoption and enhancing business processes across the bank.

The comprehensive program aims to accelerate GenAI adoption and automation readiness to drive better customer experience.

The upskilling and reskilling program will complement the bank’s existing upskilling and reskilling initiatives like the Better U Pivot Program – a holistic job transformation initiative which helps employees reskill and transition into roles in growth areas through personalized skills assessments and structured career pathways.

UOB’s flagship Better U program was launched in 2019.

To date, the program has enabled more than 26,000 employees across markets to build competencies in various banking and core critical skill areas.

The Better U programs reflect the bank’s commitment to nurturing a resilient and future-ready workforce — one that is equipped not just with new skills, but with the confidence and adaptability needed to thrive in an increasingly digital and fast-evolving financial landscape.

UOB has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF), Workforce Singapore (WSG) and Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) to help arm the bank’s employees with the necessary skills and adoption strategies to tap on GenAI to drive enterprise-wide productivity gains and operational efficiency.

Under the MoU, UOB will partner IBF to develop industry-recognized, IBF-accredited training programs, aligned to the Skills Framework for Financial Services in areas such as GenAI, digital literacy and data fluency and tap on relevant training subsidies.

The bank has also introduced prompt crafting workshops which have been accredited by IBF, so that employees can learn how to harness the AI tool for productivity gains in their daily work.

IBF will also continue to support the bank in job redesign and the future-proofing of employees by combining technical training with structured career development plans.

The bank will work with the IBF Career Advisory team to develop employee initiatives to support career growth and resilience.

To build a resilient workforce across the bank, UOB will work with WSG to develop employee initiatives that support career growth and agility, aligned with the Career Health SG initiative.

This includes tapping WSG’s Career Conversion Program to redesign jobs most impacted by technology and AI and to develop career plans that support the career development and reskilling of employees to take on new growth job roles.

UOB and NP will jointly collaborate on embedding behavioral prompts into the learning journey and measuring their effectiveness, to help drive a mindset shift towards change enablement and adoption.

This will also be a use case for NP’s research and curriculum development.

At the same time, the bank’s new Innovation Academy which was set up to foster a culture of innovation and experimentation, will help to complement the bank’s groupwide Better U upskilling efforts in Gen AI, by developing a suite of courses in AI, data and blockchain, that will be made available to all employees.

It will provide hands-on and practical learning pathways to deepen the expertise of those in data-related roles.

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