A financial coach in your app: how BBVA helps you reach your personal goals
Ever wanted to manage your money better but weren’t sure where to start? BBVA has taken another step forward in its commitment to improving the financial health of its customers by launching a coach based on artificial intelligence (AI) that supports them in every financial decision. Integrated into the bank’s mobile app, the personal trainer analyzes your circumstances, helps you set goals, and suggests tailored plans so you can achieve your financial goals step by step.
Managing our money wisely is a basic goal for pretty much all of us, though it’s also a skill which, like any other, must be trained. And yet more than 80% of savers in Spain fail to set financial goals, 84% of women don’t plan ahead for retirement, and 70% of people do not have enough set aside to guard against unexpected expenses or to make investments. To help instill good financial habits among its customers and help them reach their goals, BBVA has created a digital coach powered by data and AI to support them in this journey.
Need to spend less to make it to the end of the month without all the stress? The new coach analyzes where your money goes and gives you ideas to manage it better. Want to start building a financial cushion? Look no further, because the app guides you step by step until you’ve saved the equivalent of at least six months of expenses. Time to buy a new phone? It supports you until you’ve saved up the amount you need.
This is because, as Luz Martín, Global Head of Financial Health at BBVA, explains, each customer has different needs and goals, so it’s no longer enough to keep rolling out new tools and features. Instead, “we need to give added meaning to the tools we already have, make them genuinely useful for achieving our customers’ goals, and actively support them in their individual progress.”
Your financial progress, step by step in the app
Your financial coach will be visible from the global position page as soon as you log into the app. The first time you interact with it, it will run a diagnosis of three key aspects: your monthly saving capacity, the number of months’ worth of financial cushion you’ve built up, and whether your debt level can be considered broadly healthy.
From there, you get to choose your goal: spend less, save for an unexpected event, or perhaps save up for something that motivates you. The coach then takes over to propose plans tailored to your spending and saving habits—from recommendations on how to reduce ‘invisible spending’ (small, non-essential expenses that add up) to automating your monthly savings. You can also create sections within your account (think of them as a kind of digital piggy bank) where you can set automatic rules, such as a fixed monthly transfer or rounding up your purchases to save the ‘spare change’. That way, you’ll be contributing regularly and automatically to whatever goal you’ve set yourself.
The whole experience is gamified: the tool not only tracks your progress, sends you useful reminders, and suggests actions to adjust your plan if you stray from your targets, but it also recognizes your good practices by awarding you badges that celebrate every step you take to keep you motivated.
The financial coach is currently available to retail customers of BBVA Spain, though over the coming months the Group will roll it out in other countries where it operates. Because financial health isn’t something you simply achieve overnight, though it’s definitely easier when you have the right tools at hand.