DBS CEO says AI is beginning to contribute to fee income growth

CEO Tan Su Shan tells CNA the bank is seeing early business benefits from artificial intelligence, with the technology helping relationship managers generate ideas for clients and increase transaction activity.

SINGAPORE: Artificial intelligence is beginning to contribute to fee income growth at DBS, with the bank seeing early benefits across its wealth management and corporate banking businesses, its CEO Tan Su Shan said on Thursday (Aug 6).

Speaking to CNA's Elizabeth Neo after DBS reported a record second-quarter net profit and raised its guidance for 2026, Ms Tan said the bank was beginning to see more tangible business benefits from its AI investments.

"We're beginning to see the green shoots of AI working in generating ideation that generates fees," she said, adding that AI is also "nudging customers the right way", leading to a "higher velocity of transactions" and creating a fee-income "flywheel".

DBS has been investing in AI for several years, applying it across a wide range of functions including customer service, risk management and software engineering.

Earlier this year, the bank said its AI and data analytics initiatives generated about S$1 billion (US$780 million) in economic value in 2025.

WHY DBS RAISED ITS OUTLOOK

Ms Tan said the improved outlook reflected signs that Singapore interest rates were beginning to stabilise after declining over the past year, easing the headwinds that had weighed on the bank's earnings.

"What gave us the confidence was we saw interest rates bottom out, and we saw some stability in interest rates," she said.

Ms Tan also pointed to broad-based fee income growth across its businesses.

"What I'm most pleased about is the fee growth is actually quite broad. It's not just wealth management. It's also our corporate banking business. It's also our transaction banking business. It's also loan fees."

AI HELPING BANKERS DO MORE

Ms Tan said AI is helping relationship managers (RMs) in the bank's corporate banking business prepare more strategic ideas for clients.

"A young RM today who is AI-enabled ... can now go and talk to the CEO or chairman or CFO of the company and come up with great ideation on M&A (mergers and acquisitions) or strategic ideas," she said.

She said the technology has become "a real upskilling potential for our younger staff", allowing less experienced bankers to have conversations that might previously have required more senior colleagues.

"You're seeing it in the ideation, and you're seeing it in our fee income growth with the same workforce," she said.

Ms Tan added that AI would remain "a great enabler" as long as employees use it constructively and within appropriate governance and control frameworks.

EXPANDING AI ACROSS THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY

In wealth management, Ms Tan said AI is helping shorten customer onboarding and know-your-customer checks.

It is also being used to generate investment ideas, alert clients to research updates and corporate actions, and speed up transaction processing, Tan said.

“It's already coming up with timely sound bites and nudges for our customers,” she noted.

Ms Tan said DBS plans to continue using AI to raise productivity across the bank, while helping employees upskill and reskill.

"We will continue to enable both our customers and our employees with AI, and that enables us to do more with less," she said.

She added that DBS also hopes customers will become more familiar with its AI capabilities, allowing the bank to become "a future-ready partner".

WEALTH BUSINESS REMAINS KEY GROWTH DRIVER

DBS' wealth management business continued to underpin its performance, with assets under management surpassing S$500 billion for the first time in the first half of the year.

Asked whether geopolitical uncertainty has strengthened Singapore's position as a wealth hub, Ms Tan said the bank's strategy has always been to serve customers both in their home markets and offshore.

"You've got to do both," she said, adding that wealth is generally created in clients' home markets and offshore services should complement those domestic relationships.

She said Singapore and Hong Kong remain attractive wealth centres because of their open and mature financial markets, deep talent pools and breadth of investment opportunities.

Taiwan, meanwhile, offers long-term growth opportunities driven by its semiconductor and technology ecosystem, she added.

Looking ahead, Ms Tan said DBS will continue investing in businesses where it sees long-term structural growth, including wealth management and capital markets, while continuing to use AI to improve productivity across the organisation.

"Our growth strategy is to ensure that we continue to outperform, whether the markets go up or down," she said.