Swiss banks spend more on online advertising but lag in AI
Retail banks have increased investment in digital marketing by 16% in a bid to attract younger clients.
In 2023, budgeted sums in this segment will total CHF 47.6 million ($52.8 million), up 16% on last year, according to an estimate by Colombus Consulting in its study on the digitalisation of the customer experience, published on Thursday.
UBS, Postfinance and Raiffeisen occupy the online advertising podium.
+ Troubled Swiss banking sector sees drop in profits
“The major retail banks have invested massively in new digital functions, while maintaining a hybrid approach with relationship services and advisers who remain at the centre of customer relations,” Jean Meneveau, Associate Director of Colombus Consulting Switzerland, was quoted in a press release. The banking sector has made a special effort for its under-18 customers by introducing dedicated applications for “spending, saving, growing pocket money, sponsoring and sending money to friends”.
In terms of audience, monthly visits to the websites of Swiss establishments – more than a quarter of which come from organic or paid search – fell by 8.7% to 26 million, while the number of subscribers for the industry as a whole on the main social networks jumped by 16% to 2.7 million.
While the financial services sector is keen on artificial intelligence (AI), as evidenced by various projects focusing on conversational services, banks are investing twice as much in this area in the United States as in Europe.
“Banking software vendors are also keen to lead the way, notably Temenos, which now offers generative AI within its platform for its banking customers,” said Meneveau.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
More
The citizenship obstacle course facing spouses of Swiss Abroad
More
‘Swiss engineering at its best’: the steepest cable car in the world
More
Swiss budget cuts increase pressure on International Geneva
More
A new start for the ‘sleeping beauty’ of the Swiss Alps
More
Foreign aid cuts: where does Switzerland stand?
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.