UOB first to move 3,000 of its technology and innovation workforce into Punggol Digital District

The Bank’s $500-million facility is designed to elevate workplace experience and advance sustainability, supporting its workforce to collaborate and scale innovation across ASEAN and contributing to Singapore’s Smart Nation ecosystem.

Singapore, 5 May 2026 – UOB is the first bank to move into the Punggol Digital District (PDD), Singapore’s first smart and sustainable business district, marking a milestone in the Bank’s digital and innovation journey. The move underscores UOB’s digital first strategy and its commitment to supporting Singapore’s Smart Nation ambitions, while shaping the future of banking through digital innovation, workforce transformation and sustainability. 

UOB will occupy Tower 80 at PDD. Purpose built to support digital development and innovation at scale, the 300,000 square foot facility will serve as a central hub for the Bank’s technology and innovation teams to design, develop and deploy next generation banking capabilities across ASEAN.

The first cohort of nearly 400 employees commenced operations at the Bank’s S$500 million global technology and innovation centre on 4 May. By October, more than 3,000 employees, primarily in technology, digital and innovation roles, will be based at the facility. 

Mr Lawrence Goh, Head of Group Technology and Operations, UOB, said, “By being the first bank to move into PDD, we are bringing our ideas and talents together at the heart of Singapore’s innovation ecosystem, advancing our digital first approach to re imagining banking systems and transforming the way we deliver value across our business. This strengthens our ability to build and scale future ready banking solutions to serve customers seamlessly across the ASEAN, while supporting Singapore’s Smart Nation ambitions.” 

Strengthening our digitalisation and innovation teams and platforms

As UOB scales its technology and innovation teams at PDD, the Bank continues to translate innovation into tangible impact by anchoring its efforts on value creation, scalable platforms and talent development. In wealth management, UOB has embedded AI-enabled risk and conduct surveillance across the investment advisory journey, strengthening investor protection, improving oversight and supporting more consistent, trusted advisory outcomes. 

To enable the responsible scaling of AI across the Group, UOB has built the Model Analytics Platform (MAP), a modern enterprise platform that supports the secure development and deployment of AI models at scale. Complementing this is the UOB‑IMDA AIDA Centre of Excellence, a structured pathway to build a pipeline of early‑career AI and data analytics professionals by embedding fresh graduates into real innovation and business teams, equipping them with industry‑relevant skills to support the Bank’s long‑term AI ambitions.

To empower SMEs to adopt AI with confidence, UOB FinLab launched the AI Ready Programme last year, providing access to practical AI solutions, expert advisory and tailored clinics in collaboration with AI Singapore, IMDA and Microsoft. Together with the UOB SME Elevate Programme, which enables SMEs to upskill their workforce through structured training that builds business and digital capabilities, these workshops, advisory sessions and curated learning opportunities, will be brought to PDD to support SME transformation, strengthening competitiveness, productivity and long-term digital resilience. 

The first cohort of employees operating from the PDD include employees from the UOB TMRW team. UOB TMRW is the Bank’s all-in-one digital banking application that integrates payments, investments, lending and rewards, designed around customer needs. It serves as UOB’s core digital platform, using data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning to deliver personalised insights and offering at scale. The Bank served 530 million personalised insights to 5 million customers across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam through our UOB TMRW app in 2025, and at least one in two customers interacted with these insights. PDD will provide the next environment for these capabilities to be further developed and deployed regionally.

Empowering a future-ready workforce

Aside from our technology and innovation talents, UOB is also committed to nurture an agile and resilient future ready workforce through upskilling and reskilling, ensuring all employees are equipped with the capabilities to thrive in a rapidly evolving digital economy. The Bank has in place a wide range of purposefully-designed learning and development programmes, complemented by partnerships with leading academic and industry institutions to strengthen digital and innovation capabilities across the organisation. In 2025, about 90 per cent of UOB employees group wide upskilled in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).

The Bank also launched the Innovation Academy in October last year to help spark fresh ideas and encourage experimentation among employees, to complement upskilling efforts in Gen AI to create practical solutions for the workplace.  For example, Ask#1, a GenAI powered chatbot, was deployed across all branches in Singapore last year to help UOB branch staff enhance service delivery to our customers. The chatbot is used by more than 85 per cent of branch staff regularly, helping to ensure clear and reliable information and shorter waiting times for customers.

Elevating workplace experience and advancing sustainability commitments

Tower 80 at PDD is purposefully designed to spark and support employee interaction and collaboration, with high-performance workplace settings such as a variety of tech enhanced work zones to support both focused work and agile project sprints. This includes 100 collaborative spaces - for hosting activities from scrums to hackathons, plug-and-play desk technology that enables flexibility and allows employees to remain mobile, as well as meeting rooms with AI-powered whiteboard cameras designed to integrate seamlessly with the conferencing system and enhance hybrid collaboration across teams.

As part of UOB’s drive towards smart and sustainable operations, robotic technology will be deployed for security, cleaning and mail delivery to automate and enhance facility related services across the building.

Aligned with PDD’s smart and green design, UOB’s new facility is located within a car light district that prioritises sustainable mobility. This is supported by district level infrastructure such as district cooling, integrated waste management systems, electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, and walk  and cycle friendly environments.

At the building level, smart energy management systems and rooftop solar photovoltaic panels enable the Bank to further reduce its environmental footprint, reinforcing our long standing commitment to sustainability.