DBS has trained more than 11,000 employees whose jobs are being reshaped by artificial intelligence, and now Singapore's largest bank is deepening that effort under an industry-first agreement with the Institute of Banking and Finance Singapore (IBF). The partnership covers AI skills development, reskilling for workers in changing roles, and building a pipeline of young talent for Singapore's financial sector.
All 40,000 DBS employees globally - including 14,800 in Singapore - have already received foundational AI training. The new agreement with IBF, a first between the institute and a financial institution, extends that work into structured career transition support.
«Save people, not jobs»
DBS is positioning AI primarily as a tool to augment workers rather than replace them. «We see AI as a cognitive enhancer - augmenting what people can do by automating the mundane, taking away repetitive and administrative tasks,» said Lee Yan Hong, Head of Group Human Resources at DBS. That frees employees for higher-order work including critical thinking, problem solving and relationship building, she added.
The bank's approach is captured in a pointed principle. «Our philosophy has always been to save people, not jobs,» Lee said. «Jobs will change and tasks will evolve, but we are determined to bring everyone along our workforce transformation.»
DBS's ambition, according to Lee, is to become an «AI-enabled bank with a heart,» with humans remaining in the lead as work evolves.
AI governance and prompt engineering
Under the partnership, DBS and IBF will build foundational competencies including AI governance, responsible AI, prompt engineering and practical applications. The two organizations will also test workforce interventions for employees whose jobs are being reshaped, drawing on IBF's Job Redesign and Reskilling Career Conversion Programme and DBS's existing transformation work.
The collaboration extends beyond the bank. DBS and IBF plan to develop programs that build AI capabilities across Singapore's broader financial services industry. Carolyn Neo, CEO of IBF, called DBS a «lighthouse financial institution» in showing how employees can be supported alongside AI adoption.
For HR professionals tracking how banks handle AI-driven change, the DBS model offers a concrete example of linking reskilling targets to career pathways - the kind of practical approach covered in AI for Human Resources resources.
Human advisors for an AI-driven workplace
Alongside its technology push, DBS has launched a Career Advisory Service with an initial pool of more than 100 career advisors drawn from within the bank. The service combines human guidance with two existing AI-powered tools: iGrow, launched in 2022, which recommends learning opportunities and jobs based on an employee's skills and aspirations, and iCoach, introduced in 2025 with executive coach Marshall Goldsmith, which provides personalized coaching through generative AI.
The service will initially be available to employees across DBS's six core markets.
Building the next generation
The partnership also targets younger workers. DBS is a pioneer partner in IBF's Young Talent Programme for AI in Finance and has committed to taking in more than 500 young local talents in 2026 through its Management Associate, Internship and Traineeship programs.
HR leaders facing similar transitions can find structured guidance in the AI Learning Path for HR Managers, which covers workforce planning and reskilling strategy.
Why this matters for HR professionals
DBS's approach gives HR teams a working model for AI-driven workforce change: set a clear principle («save people, not jobs»), tie reskilling to specific role changes, and back it with both AI tools and human advisors. The scale - 11,000 reskilled employees and 100-plus internal career advisors - shows what a structured transition looks like in practice. For HR professionals, the lesson is that AI adoption succeeds when it comes with named owners, measurable training targets and explicit career support, not just policy statements.
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