The bank will set up eLabs across its network of ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

United Overseas Bank (UOB) has launched its pan-regional Engagement Lab (eLab), which will enable the bank to personalise the way in which it converses and serves its digital bank customers.

The firm said that the eLab is the first unit set up by a bank in Southeast Asia focusing on using technology and behavioural insights for customer engagement. 

The bank will set up eLabs across its network of ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, it said in a statement.

UOB's digital bank, which will be launched in Southeast Asia, will use artificial intelligence to identify individual transaction patterns from its volumes of transaction data. This will enable the digital bank to understand the individual banking needs and habits of its customers, to anticipate their needs and to be proactive in helping them achieve better money management. 

Through the eLab, the bank will use the insights drawn to design, test and trial ways to encourage customers to save and spend more wisely. The eLab team of specialists, from a range of various disciplines including data analytics and behavioural and decision sciences, will ensure that digital conversations with customers are relevant, familiar and intuitive to them. The conversations will be in the customer's own mother tongue.

Talent search
UOB has started a talent search to hire new members to join the 120-people team already working on the roll-out of UOB's digital bank across ASEAN countries.

The bank aims to increase its digital bank team by 50 per cent in the next 12 months.

Of these new hires, a quarter will join the eLab. Other roles include those in areas such as user experience and user interface design, behavioural science and research, data analytics and design thinking. 

The Bank will also increase its team of technologists, such as software engineers and architects, to develop solutions such as in-house application programming interfaces (APIs) which tap UOB's secure IT architecture to drive real-time data analytics.

While 45 per cent of the roles will be located in Singapore, positions will also be available in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.