In late 2019, UBS asked 20 of its traders to experiment with a so-called soft turret system, developed by fintech firm Cloud9 Technologies. Lee Fulmer, the bank’s global head of innovation, expected the idea of replacing traders’ heavy-duty phone consoles with a software application to meet resistance.

“But at the end of the first month, all 20 of them asked to have another month to keep playing with it,” says Fulmer. The only complaint: some sales traders missed having physical buttons to