“In 2024 we told the market that we were going to target AUM of $500 billion by 2027 which looked ambitious because we were in the range of $300 billion. One year later, I came out to say we would achieve this a year in advance. In 1Q we had $492 billion in AUM and we will exceed this target well within 2027,” Shee says at a media briefing.
To achieve this target, DBS aims to onboard 600 frontline advisors and platform engineers by the end of 2028. Shee points out that talent is “a bit thin, not just in frontliners but also in technology”. DBS plans to enable “cross learning to scale domain expertise, to implement AI know-how across multi-generational workforce”.
It’s part of the employee journey. “We recognise that we have people who are very good at domain knowledge, people who know and understand portfolios and investments and investment products inside out. But they might not be as savvy in technology, data and AI. Likewise, we have very good technologists, very good engineers who might not have sufficient domain knowledge. We're not just hiring, but we're going through a big exercise to cross-train our people,” Shee explains.
The employee journey is something DBS focused on in 2017 when it drove the digitalisation (and data) journey. “Now we're training them to be AI-conversant,” Shee adds.
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Wealth continuum and connectivity
DBS’s wealth continuum comprises the private bank, Treasures Private Client and Treasures.
Shee says DBS has a true wealth continuum strategy as he points to peers using the same term. What the phrase means is that DBS aims to serve customers looking to save their first $100 all the way to billionaires in the private bank that put in $1 billion in AUM with DBS.
See also: DBS at $100: here is how it could get there
“We have customers in the ultra-high net worth space that have north of $1 billion with us. At the same time, we have customers who save $100 every month. We are able to cater to this full spectrum of the entire wealth continuum, wherever they start, wherever they are, and wherever they continue to evolve through their journey in building their financial needs,” Shee explains.
On the wealth connectivity front, DBS serves 120 nationalities. Because of the twin hubs of Singapore and Hong Kong, Southeast Asia is one big chunk. North Asia. South Asia, Europe and the Middle East are other areas. DBS has RMs based in London, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai and Thailand, in addition to a presence in Taiwan, India, Indonesia, and Greater China.
Some analysts have indicated that there could be a potential impact of tighter Chinese regulations on cross-border investments. Shee says the way that the way wealth business is being done in China is not new. “There are ways to do things within the frame of the regulations, and that's how we operate it. We have not seen any clear direct impact,” he says.
Customer journeys
To explain DBS’s concept of customer journeys, Shee whips out a chart showing the customer journey through time, starting with face-to-face meetings, followed by the democratisation of wealth where digital access enabled DBS to introduce iWealth and digiPortfolio, products that smartphones enabled customers to access. After the first digital wave, a lot of tasks that were manual could be digitalised, including during Covid.
With AI and data, banks are able to organise the data, and build AI tools to use that data. “Digitalisation is just a form factor from which you deliver services to customers. DBS has taken a deliberate approach on how we organise our data infrastructure, how we put in our AI tools. We are able to have intelligence behind the digital to help customers get the information they want faster, to serve customers faster, and to enhance the capabilities of our own staff,” Shee elaborates. Without digitalisation, DBS would not have been able to scale its wealth management, he adds.
One of the reasons that Shee believes DBS can double its AUM in the next 3-4 years is because of digitalisation and AI. “Without AI, many of those in one spectrum of the continuum will be underserved because we just don't have enough human beings to allocate an RM to everybody and to do so many transactions,” he says.
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In terms of AI and the customer journey, Shee says customers can have hyper-personalised advisory for all the wealth segments including conversations through interoperable agents. Customers have the option of using a bot, or to avail themselves of a wealth planning manager (WPM). “Eight out of 10 of our clients are matched to a WPM because they don’t want to talk to an avatar,” Shee says. Customers who want to take action will be able to execute the investment themselves.
“Chat-based investments are not available yet. We need to clear many more safeguards before that happens,” Shee cautions. But the way the customer journey is constructed puts DBS in a position to harness the technology to be ready should the industry evolve such that agentic AI can be adopted for more actions, he says.
In 2025, 58% of DBS’s wealth AUM was actively deployed in investment products; DBS’s wealth management is recognised by analysts as a growth sector.
In a report dated July 13, UBS raised DBS’s FY2026 and FY2027 EPS forecast by as much as 4% because of its growth in fee income “led by stronger wealth management fees +27% and +13% respectively, ahead of DBS management’s guidance for mid-teens wealth management fee growth in 2026. This is supported by the strong momentum seen in 1Q2026, where wealth management fees increased 25% y-o-y, driven by 14% AUM growth and stronger AUM margins.”
