UBS And Amazon Team Up For ‘Ask UBS’ Chatbot

Investment bank UBS is reportedly teaming up with Amazon and its voice-enabled speaker, Echo, to let consumers ask Alexa financial questions.

According to a report, the new service, dubbed “Ask UBS,” will let customers ask questions about financial terms, such as “what is inflation?” and “how is the economy faring?” The idea behind the service is to reach and engage new swaths of wealth management customers. Ask UBS could become an innovative way to cut through the jargon clutter and bring financial expertise in a new and appealing way directly into people’s lives. “Our pilot with Amazon Alexa is an exciting start into the journey towards virtual assistants and improved client interaction,” Dirk Klee, COO of UBS Wealth Management, said in an email statement to Business Insider. The service will be piloted with a select number of people in November.

The move on the part of UBS comes at a time when traditional financial services companies are getting more into areas that were typically reserved for the FinTech startups. Earlier this month, Goldman Sachs launched Marcus by Goldman Sachs, an online platform offering unsecured personal loans to consumers. Named after Marcus Goldman, one of the firm’s founders, Marcus by Goldman Sachs is a new business that Goldman Sachs said benefits from the firm’s 147-year history of financial expertise, risk management and customer service.

Goldman Sachs said Marcus provides consumers with a transparent and simple approach to consolidate their high-interest credit card debt. At Marcus.com, creditworthy borrowers can apply for fixed-rate, no-fee personal loans of up to $30,000 for periods of two to six years.

“For many who manage debt payments on high-interest rate credit cards, a straightforward personal loan is a better solution,” said Harit Talwar, head of Marcus by Goldman Sachs, in a press release. “Marcus offers an option for consumers who are searching for a simpler alternative to credit card borrowing, where rates can change and multiple fees can be charged.”