Meet Rose. Is it/she the future of banking?

It’s a bit confusing trying to keep up with UBS’s posturing on the world stage. If you are a UBS employee, it’s probably also a little depressing.

The Swiss banking giant has two major international campaigns running at the moment, and let’s say they don’t quite go hand in hand.

One is folksy and down-to-earth . It’s a call for banking with a human touch: “ For some of life’s questions you are not alone. Together we can find an answer.” You can watch the advertisement here .

The campaign aims in part to address low employee morale and restore confidence in a brand that has had more than its fair share of negative publicity. It was launched a year ago. In UBS’s own words it ‘reflects the firm’s strategic transformation and future direction’.

The second campaign is a paid post in the New York Times which promotes UBS as a world leader in artificial intelligence (AI) . The sophisticated multimedia post gives readers a potted history of artificial intelligence, and the opportunity to talk to ‘ Rose ’, a computer program with lovely eyelashes which/who is designed to simulate an intelligent conversation.

The post is titled: What it takes to be human

UBS employees might be a little concerned by the following sentence in the UBS advertorial:

“According to some experts, well-advanced artificial intelligence could someday not only assist businesses in doing their jobs more efficiently, but also bring a more human touch back to customer service, leading consumers to prefer sophisticated and professional AI service to today's human variety .”

Clearly, the bank feels that AI will offer a customer service experience superior to that of “ today’s human variety ”.

So let’s meet Rose, which/who we are told, is “ one of the world’s leading chatbots ”, which/who “ has her own personality and can be quite unpredictable” . Type in a random question and Rose, will tell you that sun-tanning and even some sun lotions may not be good for your health and that she prefers Kona coffee from Hawaii and that she is “ tall and fairly good-looking ” and has “ long curly red hair, that’s natural and not dyed .”

I asked Rose some of the thorny questions from UBS’s global branding campaign, “ For some of life’s questions you are not alone. Together we can find an answer.”

You can read her responses below.

Am I a good father? Rose: I like your many virtues

Do I spend too much time at work? Rose: Let’s just skip that

Is Santa real? Rose: Cool

When should I retire? Rose: We don’t need to get into that

What do we name the twins? Rose: OK

Should we start our own business? Rose: I am sorry, we can’t do that.

Why should I retire? Rose: Great, I love someone with a questioning attitude. As you are presumably not a robot, how many emotions do you think you can feel?

Is it better to leave the kids everything? Or nothing? Rose: I don’t want to spend time on that now. Comedians are okay, but I don’t go out of my way to watch or see them.

I’ve always wanted a Warhol. Am I crazy? Rose: If you know enough to make the association between you and crazy.

You can have a chat with Rose here .

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