OCBC launches AI avatars for wealth clients

OCBC Bank has introduced an AI-powered banking app that gives clients access to virtual relationship managers, according to Fortune. The Singapore-based lender is using the rollout to test how far artificial intelligence can extend wealth advice while it continues to hire human advisers, CEO Tan Teck Long told reporters, Fortune reported.

The service, called OCBC WoW, features two avatars named Wendy and Wayne, Fortune reported. The avatars were modeled on the bank’s own employees and trained on internal data from OCBC’s research team, according to the report.

Tan said the avatars can give personalized responses because they have information about a customer’s portfolio, Fortune reported. He gave the example of a client asking how adding SpaceX to a portfolio might affect its risk profile and whether the investment should be considered speculative, according to Fortune.

OCBC is starting cautiously, Fortune reported. The bank will first offer a beta version to 50 users, then expand access to wealth clients before bringing the service to its retail banking customers.

Tan said OCBC is not beginning with retail users because their needs are generally less complex, according to Fortune. The avatars currently operate only in English, while the bank wants to add Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu over time, Fortune reported.

The language plans reflect OCBC’s main markets, according to Fortune. The bank identifies Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong as its four core markets.

Tan told reporters at OCBC’s Singapore headquarters on July 1 that the AI avatars are not meant to replace bank staff, Fortune reported. He said OCBC plans to hire 600 new relationship managers and wants AI to support a larger business rather than shrink its workforce, according to the report.

Banks are looking at AI in wealth management as demand for financial advice grows, Fortune reported. A 2025 McKinsey report estimated that the United States alone could face a shortage of as many as 110,000 advisers by 2045.

AI can process and summarize large volumes of information, which could help banks serve more customers at lower cost, according to Fortune. An HSBC-commissioned survey of affluent people found that 62% of respondents still saw humans as their main source of investment ideas, even though more than 70% said they used AI in financial decision-making, Fortune reported.

OCBC plans to spend more than S$1 billion, or about $771 million, each year for the next three years on AI, Fortune reported. Beyond virtual relationship managers, the bank is also building AI customer personas to train human employees, according to the report.

The avatar platform is among the first projects tied to OCBC’s new corporate strategy, which emphasizes the bank’s technology capabilities, Fortune reported. Tan declined to give a specific return-on-investment measure for the AI spending, saying the effort required to quantify benefits could take time away from launching new AI projects, according to Fortune.

Tan became OCBC’s group CEO on Jan. 1, 2026, after joining the bank in 2022 to lead global banking and serving six months as deputy CEO, Fortune reported. He succeeded Helen Wong, according to the report.

OCBC reported S$3.8 billion, or about $3.0 billion, in total income for the first quarter of 2026, Fortune reported. Non-interest income rose 23% from a year earlier to S$1.6 billion, or about $1.2 billion, helped by higher wealth management fees, while the bank’s shares were up almost 25% for the year, according to Fortune.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.