Matthew Lloyd/Bloomberg The UBS logo sits on display outside the headquarters of UBS AG in Zurich, Switzerland.

UBS Group AG, facing the threat of competition from Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., has turned to a Singapore-based technology company that uses artificial intelligence for help delivering personalized advice to the banks wealthy clients.

Sqreem Technologies Pte. Ltd. beat some 80 teams competing in the Innovation Challenge, a contest organized by Switzerlands biggest bank that offered S$40,000 ($30,000) and a potential contract to the winner. Their task: Extract the information most relevant to an individual client from an explosion of data and deliver this tailored content to clients mobile phones, iPads and other digital devices.

Banking is one of the most rudimentary industries when it comes to digitalization, Dirk Klee, chief operating officer for UBS wealth management and responsible for digital initiatives, said in an interview. EBay, Amazon - everything is getting more and more digital. The question is how we translate this into a similar experience for our clients.

Big global banks like UBS are turning to technology to mine data for insight on its customers that could help lenders stay competitive in the digital era. The introduction of mobile payment systems offered by Internet giants like Google Inc. and Apple Inc. has alerted traditional banks to the potential threat from tech companies with vast databases and the knowhow to exploit them.

Information Overload

We have the data! Too much of it! UBS, the worlds biggest wealth manager, said in a web posting announcing the competition in September. Across the industry, clients are overwhelmed by data.

More than 70 percent of financial institutions in North America believe that big data analytics, as this field of engineering is known, offers them a significant advantage over their competition, Cap Gemini SA said in a 2014 report. More than 90 percent believe that successful big data initiatives will determine the winners of the future, the consultancy said.

Five finalists vied to win over a panel of judges at the banks offices in Singapore on Nov. 28. Klee said the bank chose Asia as the venue because, in addition to being a hub for wealth management, clients in the region are more likely to use mobile phones and other digital devices to interact with the bank.

Privacy Concerns

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UBS Turns to Artificial Intelligence to Advise Wealthy Clients