UBS has created the position of Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and appointed Daniele Magazzeni to fill the role, with effect from 1 January 2026. The appointment makes Magazzeni the first person to hold the title at the Swiss banking group, reflecting an institutional decision to elevate AI leadership to a dedicated executive function rather than treating it as a programme absorbed within existing technology, data, or operations roles. The announcement, made on 24 October 2025, is accompanied by a complementary change to the technology leadership structure: Mike Dargan, currently UBS's group chief operations and technology officer, will transition to the distinct role of group chief technology officer on the same date.
Magazzeni will report directly to Dargan, establishing an organisational structure in which the AI function sits within the broader technology leadership hierarchy but carries its own dedicated executive head. The reporting line signals that UBS regards artificial intelligence as a discipline that is both sufficiently complex and strategically critical to warrant dedicated C-suite accountability, while ensuring that it remains integrated within the broader technology and operations organisation that Dargan will continue to oversee in his capacity as group chief technology officer.
AI FUNCTION ELEVATED TO DEDICATED C-SUITE ROLE
The creation of a dedicated chief AI officer position at a major global bank reflects a broader trend among large financial institutions that have invested heavily in machine learning, natural language processing, and generative AI capabilities across front-office advisory, risk modelling, compliance surveillance, and back-office automation. At institutions of UBS's scale and complexity, the governance, model risk, and strategic co-ordination challenges associated with deploying AI across a globally regulated business have grown to a point where dedicated executive ownership is increasingly regarded as a prerequisite for responsible and effective management of the technology.
Magazzeni assumes the role at a juncture when the financial services industry is actively grappling with how to deploy AI responsibly and in compliance with a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape. Supervisory authorities across the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland are each developing expectations around AI model governance, explainability in credit and risk decisions, data protection standards, and the operational resilience of AI-dependent systems. A dedicated Chief AI Officer provides UBS with a clear and visible point of accountability for navigating those regulatory and ethical considerations within the bank's institutional and governance framework.
DARGAN MOVES TO GROUP CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
Mike Dargan's transition to the group CTO role reshapes the technology leadership layer without removing a figure who has been closely associated with UBS's multi-year technology transformation programme. As group CTO, Dargan retains broad strategic oversight of the technology organisation and will have Magazzeni's AI function reporting into him. The division of responsibilities between the CTO and the newly created CAIO — with the latter focused specifically on AI strategy, model governance, and the deployment and scaling of AI applications — acknowledges that the breadth of the AI agenda at a global bank of UBS's size and diversity now warrants its own dedicated senior executive.
UBS has not published a detailed description of the specific scope of the Chief AI Officer mandate or enumerated the AI platforms, programmes, and investments that will fall under Magazzeni's leadership from January 2026. The bank said the appointments reflect its commitment to building a technology and AI leadership structure appropriate for the demands of a global financial institution operating in a period of rapid and consequential change in how artificial intelligence can be applied across banking, wealth management, and capital markets activities.