The future of finance: Why vertical AI must start with customers, not banks
The future of finance: Why vertical AI must start with customers, not banks For most who believe, it is the bank who have the data — true. But, believe me — it’ll never be the whole picture. We love “customer first” for a reason! In today’s fintech landscape, AI is the backbone that holds the promise of truly personal finance — money that works for the customer, not just the institution. It’s a shift that mirrors what we’ve seen in food-delivery platforms like DoorDash, Talabat, and Zomato. Initially, these services were designed around a singular focus: the customer. By creating a frictionless, responsive, and deeply personalized experience, they didn’t just serve a demand — they created one. The result? Restaurants lined up to join the ecosystem, seeing the undeniable value of being where the customers already were. In financial services, however, the approach has largely been inverted. While advances in cloud migration, open banking, and digital-first products are monumental, many of these efforts still center on the bank’s needs — reducing operational costs, streamlining internal processes, or automating routine tasks. But, can we say that financial services truly work for the everyday person yet? My answer is: Not quite. We still have miles to go to make the experience as intuitive and beneficial as the technology allows. This is where Sav is shifting the paradigm with a vertical AI approach that understands and prioritizes customer needs in a way that’s both intuitive and actionable. From physical to digital to robo-advisors The evolution of fintech started with a noble goal: “How can technology make financial services work for the average person?” Traditional banking once provided a named relationship manager, but as that era faded, fintech emerged to fill the gap. Neo-banks, budgeting apps, and robo-advisors made finance more accessible, but often in isolated, fragmented ways. Consumers now juggle multiple apps for different needs — banking, budgeting, saving, investing — creating an exhausting puzzle for them to piece together. Sav’s MyMoney suite addresses this fragmentation by consolidating and centralizing financial insights and actions. Built on AI and open banking, Sav enables consumers to manage their money from a single view, where everything from budgeting to saving and spending is tailored specifically to their unique financial behaviors. Much like food-delivery platforms that brought convenience to the forefront, Sav’s vertical AI-powered approach brings an all-encompassing experience to consumers, making financial actions simpler and less time-consuming. AI as the vertical solution for hyper-personalized finance While banks currently use AI to streamline business operations—such as processing documents faster—this is just scratching the surface. True vertical AI, as pioneered by Sav, integrates into the consumer’s life, understanding their financial landscape holistically. Picture an AI that doesn’t merely analyze past spending but proactively suggests the best financial actions based on current and predictive insights. Sav’s MyMoney suite, for example, not only provides real-time spending insights but is also being built to help users optimize their savings, debt, and investment decisions within the context of their broader financial goals. In practice, Sav’s vertical AI approach works because it processes enriched, high-quality data specific to each consumer. Unlike generic large language models (LLMs) used across industries, Sav’s AI agents leverage detailed transaction history, financial behaviors, and personalized insights to generate solutions that are accurate, transparent, and meaningful. This approach ensures that consumers get actionable intelligence without the risk of errors or so-called “hallucinations.” The challenge of data integrity and security For AI to be truly transformative, data integrity is paramount. It must be secure, reliable, and consent-driven. In a world where customer data powers hyper-personalized solutions, every piece of data must be treated as sensitive, ensuring that insights are generated with precision and accuracy. The cornerstone of any platform will be to ensure all insights are delivered within a secure, compliant, and consumer-consented framework. AI regulation—maybe. But, without a doubt, financial services must prioritize stringent data-security standards. Only then can we achieve a future where customers trust AI-driven insights. We are only scratching the surface with the use cases It will be no time before AI becomes mainstream for money. Imagine opening your banking/fintech app one morning to find it’s done some thinking on your behalf. You’ve got AED 5,000 “snoozing” in a low-interest savings account, and the AI agent has spotted a higher-yield option that would have netted you an extra 2% return last quarter. Rather than leaving this money dormant, it proposes an instant transfer into a better-performing account. And if you prefer liquidity over long-term commitment, it suggests a low-risk investment option that keeps your cash accessible but working—all with a single tap. But it doesn’t stop there. Sav’s MyMoney suite will one day recognize that you’re also paying 5% interest on a small outstanding credit line. With a single tap, it offers to refinance this debt at a lower rate or even proposes a “debt shuffle” that minimizes your interest payments based on available balances across your accounts. In just a few moments, you’ve optimized your cash flow and maximized returns without crunching a single number. This is the kind of effortless financial management that can empower consumers—not by throwing tools at them, but by giving them actionable, pre-packaged insights that they can implement instantly. What vertical AI can achieve Vertical AI for financial services, when executed with a customer-first mentality, will transform the industry as we know it. Customers will no longer need to piece together solutions from different providers, and banks and financial institutions will naturally flock to a system that places them where consumers are most engaged. The AI-powered platform is a powerful intermediary that can effectively bridge these two worlds. Sav’s MyMoney suite, built on open banking and AI, exemplifies this customer-centric, vertical-AI approach. Rather than competing with banks, Sav partners with them, offering a bank-agnostic platform that helps financial institutions reach highly engaged consumers. Banks can now connect with users who are actively managing their finances, increasing assets under management and offering personalized financial products directly to consumers. Ultimately, a customer-first approach driven by vertical AI has the power to usher …
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