Over time, OCBC WoW will use its AI-native environment to extend its range of products and services to meet customers’ sophisticated needs and build deeper and more firmly entrenched relationships, the firm said in a statement.

With AI, Digital, Data (ADD) at the core of the Next Frontier corporate strategy, OCBC aims to intensify the build-up of its AI-native environment to support a test-and-learn culture. This approach will enable low-cost experimentation through prototyping, allowing ideas to be refined quickly and scaled into agile, high-impact execution, the firm continued.

Spanning wealth management to becoming a daily go-to news destination, from lifestyle rewards to core banking services, OCBC WoW aims to establish itself as a “digital financial companion” integrated into customers’ everyday lives.

In its beta version, Wendy and Wayne, the two avatars in OCBC WoW – which will involve OCBC bringing the “Whole-of Wealth” proposition across the group to customers – will show customers their investment portfolios, and deliver personalised market news and data combined with OCBC Group insights and top investment ideas across markets, geographies, currencies and themes. OCBC WoW anticipates customer needs and incorporates advanced portfolio intelligence.

Wendy and Wayne will interact with customers through voice or text, the firm added. They will provide customers with portfolio analysis, so that they can understand underlying exposures and sources of risk more comprehensively. This, in turn, will empower customers to make more informed decisions, optimise portfolio allocation and improve long-term investment outcomes.

OCBC WoW will enhance OCBC wealth advisors’ understanding of the investment needs of customers, enabling pro-active engagement with timely, relevant and tailored support, the firm continued. This will encourage customers to invest more through OCBC, thus enlarging the share of customers’ wallet in OCBC’s ‘Whole-of-Wealth’ push.

“We are changing the ‘face of banking.’ Starting with wealth management, we are transforming how we engage customers with the use of avatars and hyper-personalisation on a real-time basis, 24/7,” OCBC group CEO, Tan Teck Long, said.

Five main features are included in OCBC WoW:

-- Real-time curated news and market developments relevant to the customer’s portfolio;

-- Timely market price data from seven indices and commodities, with planned expansion to 12 over time;

-- Personalised OCBC Group insights and house views as well as their implications for the customer’s portfolio;

-- Tracking of the customer’s portfolio and how it is impacted by market developments; and

-- Actionable investment ideas based on the customer’s profile and risk appetite.

The beta version of OCBC WoW will be released to a selected group of employees and customers by invitation-only. Customers who are invited will be served by OCBC Premier Private Client (with minimum assets under management of S$1.5 million ($1.15 million) wealth advisors. Subsequent phases of the beta version will be progressively rolled out, with enhancements driven by iterative prototyping and user feedback, underpinned by a nimble, scalable approach, the firm said. A fuller roll-out is expected at a date to be announced.

The new platform is built on four technology architecture layers:

-- The first layer comprises data ingestion of real-time market data, OCBC research and insights, and customers’ portfolios, transaction data and behaviour sets;

-- The second layer integrates the AI deterministic guardrails into the platform;

-- The third layer comprises the use of AI agents for building intelligence at scale; and

-- The last layer generates the output modules that are seen and experienced by customers.

The avatars, Wendy and Wayne, will initially engage customers in English. Languages such as Mandarin, Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia will be progressively introduced. Down the line are tailored insurance solutions and banking services, a wider range of avatars and exclusive deals to celebrate customers’ investment milestones and rewards that cater to a wide spectrum of lifestyle preferences.

Enhancing customer centricity through AI, digital and data
The rollout of OCBC WoW builds on earlier investments in AI, digital and data, the firm said. Earlier this year, OCBC’s consumer banking unit rolled out a Gen AI-powered skills training programme for its wealth advisor force in Singapore. The six-month programme coaches wealth advisors on a full range of competencies including investment advisory, client management, product mastery and wealth planning. By incorporating GenAI, the programme helps minimise bias and emotional influence often associated with traditional, supervisor-led coaching, enabling more objective and consistent development outcomes, the firm said.

Within the first three months of training, wealth advisors demonstrated a high level of customer engagement, securing double the number of weekly client appointments compared with peers who had not yet completed the programme. There was also a 50 per cent uplift in revenue compared with the previous three months, the firm added.

Last year, the Bank of Singapore, OCBC’s private banking arm, also rolled out an agentic AI-powered source of wealth (SOW) tool. Embedded directly into know-your-customer workflows, the AI ‘agent’ independently initiates and coordinates tasks such as extracting, structuring and synthesising information across customer records and supporting documents, identifying data gaps and prompting targeted follow-ups when needed to complete an assessment.