In 2025, artificial intelligence (AI) was a theme discussed widely across investor calls in the banking sector, but few institutions demonstrated its value with the same clarity and consistency as DBS. The bank generated approximately SGD1 billion ($770 million) in economic value from its AI initiatives, reflecting how deeply technology is embedded across its franchise and why it continues to define digital’s cutting edge in Asia.
At the core of this performance is a bank-wide capability to move ideas from experimentation to scaled deployment with discipline and speed. By the end of 2025, DBS had deployed more than 2,000 AI models across over 430 use cases, spanning customer engagement, operations and risk.
The significance lies not only in scale but in execution, with the bank able to roll out advanced capabilities rapidly while maintaining strong standards across compliance, service quality and risk management. This combination increasingly places DBS ahead of peers in the practical application of emerging technologies, with capabilities already being deployed at scale that others in the market are just beginning to talk about.
Since embarking on our digitalisation journey in 2014, we’ve redefined the future of banking by embedding digital innovation into every facet of our operations
Tan Su Shan
The past year marked a clear shift in DBS’s technology journey, as it moved further into generative and early agentic AI. Generative AI was scaled across the organisation through both enterprise-wide tools and targeted applications, while early agentic deployments introduced systems capable of multi-step reasoning and execution within defined guardrails. This represents an important industry transition from AI as a tool to AI as an active layer within the delivery of banking services.
“Since embarking on our digitalisation journey in 2014, we’ve redefined the future of banking by embedding digital innovation into every facet of our operations,” says CEO Tan Su Shan. “As technological change accelerates, our early investments in digital and AI laid a strong foundation for the next phase of our transformation – being an AI-enabled bank with a heart. This reflects our commitment to leveraging AI responsibly, blending machine intelligence with human empathy to reinforce the trust that our customers place in us.”
Tech ambition, human focus
For customers, the impact is most visible in the evolution of the digital banking experience. AI is increasingly embedded across onboarding, servicing and engagement, reducing friction while enabling faster, more relevant interactions. New AI-powered interfaces such as DBS Joy provide continuous, real-time support, improving both accessibility and response quality. Banking becomes less transactional and more anticipatory, with interactions shaped by context and timing rather than static processes.
Across SMEs and corporates, the same capabilities have been applied to improve efficiency and scalability. AI-powered automation has streamlined workflows such as payments processing and trade documentation. Solutions like GenAI Trade Validation significantly reduce manual effort while improving accuracy and compliance, enabling clients to operate more effectively across increasingly complex cross-border environments.
Customer facing actions are reinforced by tools such as DBS-GPT that extend generative AI capabilities across the bank’s workforce, while early agentic systems begin to support more complex workflows with human oversight. Together, these capabilities are reshaping how work is done, pointing towards a more intelligent, adaptive operating model where technology continuously improves both processes and outcomes.
“Last year, we scaled up our agentic AI deployment across the bank – which we see as the next wave of growth,” says Tan. “From how we design client journeys to how our people work, this is enabled by strategic initiatives such as DBS-GPT, the creation of personalised AI agents and large-scale upskilling of our workforce. Underpinned by a resilient technology infrastructure, we are able to deliver seamless experiences for our customers while continuously delivering better outcomes.”
In a year where the deployment of AI has begun to make itself felt on banking workforces, DBS has paired its technological ambition with a clear human focus and a narrative to protect workers, if not jobs. In line with this ethos, more than 11,000 employees have been reskilled for AI-enabled roles, ensuring that its workforce is empowered to evolve alongside technology.
As banking enters a new phase shaped by generative and agentic AI, DBS has moved early, demonstrating what scaled, real-world application can look like.
