United Overseas Bank (UOB) has opened a lab in Singapore to identify ways to better personalise engagement with digital customers and is planning open similar facilities across its Asean network. These would include markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, the Singapore bank said in a statement Thursday. Its new Engagement Lab (eLab) would tap artificial intelligence (AI) and behavioural insights to improve its services and interaction with digital bank customers, according to UOB. Increased emphasis on building a cashless society to reflect country's success as a smart nation is misplaced, when the importance of getting the fundamentals right is overlooked. The bank in August said it was preparing to launch a digital bank in the region, designed to operate on a "data-centric business model" to enhance engagement across five stages in the banking journey: acquire, transact, generate data, insight, and engage.