{"id":2605,"date":"2026-07-01T14:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T14:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2605"},"modified":"2026-07-01T14:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T14:13:09","slug":"ocbc-rolls-out-its-avatar-banking-platform-with-wendy-and-wayne-two-virtual-financial-advisors-as-banks-integrate-ai-into-wealth-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2605","title":{"rendered":"OCBC rolls out its \u2018avatar banking\u2019 platform with \u2018Wendy\u2019 and \u2018Wayne,\u2019 two virtual financial advisors, as banks integrate AI into wealth management"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yet CEO Tan Teck Long said the new AI avatars won\u2019t replace the bank\u2019s human employees, as he pledged to hire 600 new relationship managers. \u201cInstead of thinking that AI will reduce our workforce, we hope to use it to increase the workforce and support a much larger business,\u201d Tan said during a press conference at OCBC\u2019s Singapore headquarters on July 1, in one of his first engagements with the press since becoming CEO on Jan. 1.<\/p>\n

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The platform currently features two avatars named \u201cWendy\u201d and \u201cWayne,\u201d modelled after OCBC\u2019s own staff members. Users can pose questions to the avatars, trained on proprietary data from the bank\u2019s research team. <\/p>\n

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\u201cThey know your portfolio and are personalized to you,\u201d Tan explained. \u201cFor example, you can ask them what it might mean to add SpaceX to your portfolio, and whether the stock is speculative.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new app, named OCBC WoW, will first be rolled out as a beta version to fifty users, then to OCBC\u2019s wealth clients, and eventually to its retail banking segment.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re not starting with our retail clients, since they tend to have simpler needs,\u201d Tan explained.<\/p>\n

Currently, OCBC\u2019s avatars will only speak English. The bank hopes to train the AI to eventually converse in Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia, and Bahasa Melayu. (OCBC has four core markets: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Hong Kong).<\/p>\n

Banks are starting to explore using AI to boost the productivity of their wealth management departments, especially as rising incomes and wealth boost the demand for financial advice. A 2025 McKinsey report estimated that the U.S. alone might face a shortfall of up to 110,000 advisors by 2045.<\/p>\n

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AI\u2019s ability to ingest and summarize large amounts of data might allow banks to offer high-quality advice to a larger group of customers at lower cost. Yet a recent HSBC-comissioned survey of affluent individuals found that 62% of respondents still credited humans as \u201cthe main source\u201d of investment ideas, even as over 70% said they used AI in their financial decisions.<\/p>\n

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OCBC plans to spend more than one billion Singapore dollars ($771 million) annually over the next three years on AI. In addition to creating AI relationship managers, the bank is also creating AI customers as a training tool for its human employees. <\/p>\n

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Tan joined OCBC in 2022 to head its global banking division, then started a six-month stint as deputy CEO in July 2025. He assumed the group CEO role on Jan. 1, 2026, replacing outgoing head Helen Wong. <\/p>\n

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OCBC reported 3.8 billion Singapore dollars ($3.0 billion) in total income in the first three months of 2026, the first set of quarterly earnings in Tan\u2019s tenure. Non-interest income grew by 23% year-over-year to 1.6 billion Singapore dollars ($1.2 billion), thanks to surging wealth management fees. OCBC shares are up almost 25% since the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n

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The bank\u2019s \u201cavatar banking\u201d platform is one of the first initiatives under a new coporate strategy to showcase its technological capabilities. <\/p>\n

Despite his eagerness to embrace AI, Tan demurred on sharing how OCBC will measure the return on its AI investment. \u201cYou have to spend a lot of energy to quantify the benefits of AI,\u201d he said. \u201cThe energy we spend trying to do so may be equal to the amount of time we take to roll out new AI initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The platform currently features two avatars named “Wendy” and “Wayne,” modelled after OCBC’s own staff members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-singapore"],"yoast_head":"\nOCBC rolls out its \u2018avatar banking\u2019 platform with \u2018Wendy\u2019 and \u2018Wayne,\u2019 two virtual financial advisors, as banks integrate AI into wealth management - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2605\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"OCBC rolls out its \u2018avatar banking\u2019 platform with \u2018Wendy\u2019 and \u2018Wayne,\u2019 two virtual financial advisors, as banks integrate AI into wealth management - 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