UBS makes AI proficiency a formal hiring requirement for junior bankers and interns
UBS makes AI proficiency a formal hiring requirement for junior bankers and interns #
UBS has made artificial intelligence proficiency a formal prerequisite for graduates and interns seeking roles in its global banking and markets division. The bank is among the first major financial institutions to include AI literacy in its hiring criteria.
According to the Financial Times, the requirement applies to the bank’s 2027 intake and is expected to extend to other entry-level roles across the group. Candidates will face AI-specific questions during recruitment interviews. The bank is looking for applicants who can demonstrate practical use of AI tools for analysis, research and client-facing work, not just familiarity with consumer chatbots such as ChatGPT.
UBS has said the new criterion is designed to complement traditional hiring standards rather than replace them. Graduates are still expected to meet academic requirements such as a 2:1 degree, and the bank has said AI competency should sit alongside strong analytical and interpersonal skills, not substitute for them.
The change is part of a broader internal effort at UBS to build an AI-ready workforce. According to the bank’s public technology pages, more than 38,000 employees have completed AI learning journeys and over 49,000 have enrolled in AI-related online courses since 2024. By July 2026, more than 21,000 staff had earned UBS’s internal “AI Citizen” badge. Graduate recruits in the bank’s Graduate Talent Program go through a dedicated AI Fluency Pathway covering real-world use cases, responsible use and the judgment needed to critically evaluate AI outputs.
UBS is not alone in this. Santander has reportedly sought “advanced AI users” for certain graduate programs, a sign that AI literacy may be becoming a standard screening criterion across European banking. The wider industry is also weighing structural questions about AI’s role in entry-level work. Bloomberg Intelligence has projected that banks could shed up to 200,000 jobs within five years as AI takes on more analytical tasks, a forecast that has prompted debate about whether financial institutions are hiring fewer graduates or simply expecting more of those they do hire.
UBS has indicated it is raising expectations for new hires rather than reducing the size of its intake.
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