ZURICH, May 13 (Reuters) - UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti on Monday laid out some of the risks to the bank's ongoing integration of former rival Credit Suisse, while also discussing his own future, generative AI and whether the lender had become too big for Switzerland.

Below are some of the key comments Ermotti made during his interview at a Reuters newsmaker event in Zurich:

* INTEGRATING CREDIT SUISSE

"Today, it's still two banks. Somehow, psychologically, it's still not easy," he said, "But I'm very positively surprised how quickly we are now managing one bank together."

* COMBINING CULTURES OF TWO BANKS

"There is not so much dissimilarities ... I do think that Credit Suisse and UBS shared already a lot of common values," he said.

"From the very beginning we say, we are open to listen to different views, but one thing is clear, the operating model we're gonna adopt is the operating model of UBS."

* TECH INTEGRATION RISKS

"The real risk is to have to delay the realizations of synergies," said the head of Switzerland's biggest bank.

"By integrating only 300 applications of Credit Suisse's out of 3,000 applications, we are really reducing the risk of IT integration risks."

* FALLING BEHIND ON EMBRACING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

"Yeah, the risk is there, but we are aware of that risk," Ermotti said.

"We already run 100 AI advanced technology projects, half-half between front and back (end), so we are on top of it."

"When I say we're going to save 13 billion, I say we're going to reinvest part of this few billions for making our processes and our businesses stronger."

* COST SAVINGS AND JOB CUTS

"It's a painful exercise. The way we achieve the cost reductions in our industry is inevitable. It's going to be headcount reductions," he said.

"We're going to reinvest to make our systems, our processes, our businesses stronger."

* UBS AND ITS SWISS HOME

"I don't believe that we are too big for Switzerland," the UBS CEO said.

"I think that while I fully understand that an easy-to-compare statistic is our balance sheet versus the GDP of the country, I would say that when you look at all the data points, not only in respect of the bank, but also the Swiss economy and what we do, you would easily see that Switzerland is a country that punches well above its weight on many dimensions."

* AFTERMATH OF THE CREDIT SUISSE CRASH

"I do believe that in order to understand all the issues that need to be addressed going forward, a proper post-mortem has to be done," Ermotti said.

"It's very, very important not to allow these debates to be moved into forward-looking demands or solutions that take away the responsibility and the accountability."

*INFLATION

"Rates won't come down if inflation is not under control," Ermotti said, "and if there is one issue that worries me is that if inflation doesn't come down, I really see not only an economic consequence, I also fear a social consequence."

(Reporting by John Revill and Noele Illien Editing by Tomasz Janowski)