[SINGAPORE] OCBC has launched an artificial intelligence-powered generative training program for its 900 wealth advisors in Singapore, moving away from a model that relies exclusively on face-to-face supervision, it announced on Wednesday (April 15).
The six-month initiative was developed over a year using large-scale language models and proprietary customer data to deploy GenAI to coach wealth advisors in competencies such as investment advisory, client management, product mastery, and wealth planning.
Prior to this rollout, wealth advisor training was delivered one-on-one by a supervisor.
“Wealth advisors can take up to three weeks to secure a training session with their supervisor, who typically has to coach up to 10 staff. This, along with other responsibilities, can result in inconsistent evaluation criteria and quality of feedback between different supervisors,” OCBC said.
The program uses the bank’s anonymized proprietary insights into customer behavior to generate realistic training scenarios.
“These include helping customers create investment portfolios to address long-term needs, identifying customers’ risk profiles, selling more sophisticated financial products, and adjusting investment strategies to market movements,” OCBC said.
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“During each training session, the program, available to wealth advisors on their work devices, dynamically adjusts its responses based on what is said and engages as naturally as a client would in a real-life environment.”
After an AI session, supervisors receive an automated report detailing the advisor’s specific competency gaps, allowing for more targeted in-person follow-up.
Performance and scalability
According to OCBC, initial data from the first three months of implementation shows that advisors who used the program secured twice as many weekly client bookings compared to advisors who had not yet received training.
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Additionally, the group saw a 50% increase in revenue in the three months prior to the program’s launch.
The bank said it plans to localize the training platform and export it to the Malaysian and Hong Kong markets at a later stage.
Content for these regions is tailored to reflect local products, regulatory requirements, and customer behavior.
The program covers advisors across three retail sectors: Personal Banking, Premier Banking and Private Premier Client.
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