Bank employees tremble in fear! UBS Group AG (UBS.US) launches M&A AI assistant, providing insights on 300,000 companies in 20 seconds.

UBS Group AG has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can analyze databases of over 300,000 companies in less than half a minute, helping it provide potential merger and acquisition deals for its clients. Brice Bolinger, head of Mergers and Acquisitions at UBS Group AG in Switzerland, said on Tuesday that UBS Group AG has created its own M&A "co-pilot" to suggest buyer ideas and help sellers identify potential buyers. The tool can also identify potential targets of activist investors by comparing the tone of management in presentations and Q&A scenarios. The bank said it also sees potential use cases for artificial intelligence in supporting M&A transactions in legal tasks and data room work. However, Bolinger stated that testing of artificial intelligence tools to support company evaluations, benchmarking, and financial analysis has not been satisfactory, adding that the adoption of AI tools becomes complicated due to compliance risks related to confidential data and accountability. Bolinger indicated that UBS Group AG has been using the tool for a year to support clients in their M&A processes. Earlier this year, Citigroup Inc. stated that artificial intelligence could replace more jobs in the banking industry than any other sector, as over half of the jobs have significant automation potential.