AI Fluency Pathway

The AI Fluency Pathway is a training program UBS gives to new hires who have just accepted a graduate banking offer. Think of it as a follow-up course: during recruitment, UBS checks whether a candidate has experience using AI, and once someone is hired, this program teaches them how to use AI specifically for banking work and how to use it responsibly.

A useful comparison is a driving test. At the test itself, examiners only check that you have the basics down; you learn the finer points of actually driving on real roads after you get your license. Similarly, UBS looks at whether candidates have hands-on AI experience and can explain the results during hiring, and once they're hired, this program systematically teaches them where and how to use AI in banking work, and when to be careful.

UBS has added AI proficiency as a requirement for its 2027 graduate and internship hiring in Global Banking and Markets, and paired it with this training program for new hires. According to the company, AI proficiency is not meant to replace academic performance or interpersonal skills as a hiring criterion, but to be an additional requirement on top of them.

The article puts it this way: "UBS enrolls new hires in a training program called the AI Fluency Pathway. It covers cases of using AI in banking work and how to use it responsibly."

One point that's easy to confuse: this is not the hiring criterion itself, but a training program given after someone is hired. What's assessed during recruitment is whether an applicant can describe prior experience using AI in their work; the AI Fluency Pathway is the standardized follow-up curriculum the company provides afterward.