UBS trials artificial intelligence wealth managers

Wealth management firm and investment bank UBS is running artificial intelligence (AI) trials with some of its richest clients. AI applications being tested include tools designed to read facial expressions and uncover clients' unconscious biases towards or against certain types of investment. The aim is to help the company's cash-rich, but time-poor, clientele to ask the right questions about their decisions, according to UBS. The move comes as little surprise. The financial services market is in the vanguard of automation, AI, machine learning and robotics at a time when many customers prefer app-based mobile banking to online or bricks-and-mortar alternatives. Several international banks plan mass software automation, including HSBC and Bank of America investment arm Merrill Edge.