UBS Requires New Junior Bankers to Prove AI Fluency by 2027

UBS has become one of the first major banks to make AI literacy a formal hiring requirement, telling graduates and interns applying to its global banking and markets division from 2027 that they must show they can already use AI tools before they are offered a job. The Financial Times first reported the change, according to Startup Fortune, which reviewed the bank's updated recruitment criteria.

What UBS is actually asking for

Candidates applying to the Zurich-based bank's junior investment banking programme will face AI-related questions during the recruitment process, on top of the traditional tests of academic record and financial aptitude. UBS says it wants people who can already put AI tools to work for analysis, research and client-facing tasks, not simply people who have heard of them.

Concretely, new graduates and interns joining UBS's global banking and markets arm will need to:

• answer AI-related questions during interviews, alongside the usual academic and technical screening
• show they can already use AI tools for financial analysis, research and client work
• complete an “AI Fluency Pathway” inside the bank's Graduate Talent Program, covering real use cases, responsible use, and the judgement to know when an AI's output can be trusted

UBS's own careers pages describe the scale of the push: more than 38,000 employees have completed internal AI learning journeys, more than 49,000 have enrolled in AI-related online courses since 2024, and more than 21,000 had earned the bank's internal “AI Citizen” badge by July 2026.

the ability to use AI to improve work outcomes and efficiency

The requirement is not limited to new hires. According to Complete AI Training, UBS's global head of human resources, named in the report as Seiler, confirmed in early September 2026 that AI proficiency has become a formal, permanent part of individual performance reviews across the bank. Promotions and pay now weigh demonstrated AI use alongside financial targets and client-facing skills, and staff aiming for management roles need a track record of actually using the bank's AI systems, not just having attended a training session. UBS tracks adoption at an aggregate, department-wide level rather than monitoring individual employees, and runs a weekly “AI power hour” session where staff review use cases and sharpen their skills.

Part of a wider shift across finance

UBS's move lands in an industry already unsettled by AI. Wall Street banks, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, had considered cutting junior hiring by as much as two-thirds as AI took over more analyst work, according to earlier New York Times reporting cited by Fortune. Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon later told Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast that graduate hiring might contract “a little” over the next few years but not dramatically — the bank's 2026 summer intern class still ran to roughly 2,500 people, with an acceptance rate below 1% for a third straight year. JPMorgan, meanwhile, told managers to hold back on hiring as it pushes AI deeper into the business, CNBC reported in October 2025.

UBS is framing its own approach differently. Rather than shrinking the junior ranks outright, the bank says AI will absorb some of the repetitive work — building comparables, checking data, formatting presentations — freeing analysts to focus on higher-value tasks. Nestor Paz-Galindo, UBS's head of global banking for EMEA, made that case in comments to Financial News, reported by Startup Fortune, arguing AI would not replace junior bankers but change what they spend their time on. The bet is that judgement, not spreadsheet drudgery, becomes the skill that gets a graduate hired and promoted.

What this changes for UK businesses

For companies recruiting graduates and specialists across London's finance and technology sectors, UBS's policy sets a new competitive baseline. British employers that still treat AI training as an optional perk risk losing candidates to firms that assess AI fluency at the interview stage and reward it in pay and promotion decisions. Formalising an AI evaluation step in graduate schemes, and tying AI use to performance reviews the way UBS now does, is becoming less a differentiator and more a basic expectation for any UK employer competing for the same talent pool.