Our AI Kettle is ready to boil
Real-world challenges, best-in-class test environments, in-house competitions: how we’re giving our experts a playground to sharpen their skills
At UBS, we’re becoming an AI-enabled organization where all – clients, employees and shareholders – benefit from our AI-powered capabilities, in a responsible and sustainable way. As part of that, we want our people to grow their expertise in every way possible. That’s where AI Kettle comes in: an in-house competition designed to solve real business challenges while leveling up our AI capabilities and bringing teams – and experts – together.
2024: Something's brewing
Our AI Kettle switched on in 2024 as a joint venture competition between our Investment Bank’s Global Markets business and Group Emerging Technology. We soon realized we were on to something, so we expanded and brought together 800 participants from 15 countries. The result was nearly 300 new AI solutions solving a complex business problem in our market leading FX franchise. We were even able to implement the winning approaches into our business and have further expansions planned in the near future. The biggest surprise of the first AI Kettle challenge was the wide variety of people – specifically traders, risk managers and consultants from across the firm –who made it into the top 10.
Following the success of the first edition, we’re running regular competitions across our business areas. Now, we host virtual events two to three times a year, replicating best-in-class AI environments for firm-wide AI-aligned staff to work collaboratively and competitively.
These competitions are designed with clear commercial objectives and curated datasets that reflect real-world business challenges. Each challenge is:
- Expert-led: problems are co-developed with UBS business and AI leaders
- Agile: 4–6 week sprints that balance depth with speed
- Responsive: lightning-fast feedback loops and daily leaderboard updates
- Seamless: click-and-go environments that let participants focus on solving, not setup
Today, AI Kettle is a global initiative – a sandbox for colleagues to sharpen skills while tackling some of the biggest AI challenges at UBS. We bring the problems, the tools and the data, our people bring the brainpower.
“AI Kettle is one of the best examples of cross-team innovation I’ve seen in my eight years at UBS,” says a Senior Data Scientist from Wealth Management Americas. “It’s a knowledge-sharing powerhouse.”
2025: Keeping the kettle boiling
This year, we’re turning up the heat with our Agentic AI challenge. The mission? To boost our individual and organizational Agentic AI capabilities through a real-world business problem, all through a gamified competition.
We’ve teamed up with UBS AI experts to craft the perfect dataset, evaluation model and business alignment. Designed for employees with intermediate to advanced technical abilities, the competition welcomes anyone looking to rapidly boost their skills (and push boundaries). And the response? 10 days into the month-long Agentic challenge, we had 1000 participants, hundreds of solutions submitted and a constantly changing leaderboard.
We believe, when implemented responsibly, Agentic AI could have a meaningful impact on how we operate and better serve our clients. With tomorrow in mind, we’re excited to explore and build expertise in this field.
2026 and beyond: Same old tea? Not a chance
Our AI Kettle is about keeping a rolling boil – we’re brewing transformation. Since ramping up our AI strategy in late 2024, adoption has increased substantially across the firm. Access to cutting-edge technologies, research collaborations, and shared expertise is fueling innovation and keeping us competitive.
These competitions help rapidly boost our AI capabilities, helping us to explore these exciting new frontiers responsibly. And as one senior trader put it:
“Learning by doing – that’s the way forward. And initiatives like AI Kettle? I can’t think of a better value upskill event in my time at UBS.”