The emergence of new technologies has a major impact on financial security and customer opportunities throughout the financial industry. The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) over the last five years, together with a strong interest in this technology expressed by leaders at major banks in interviews with Commonwealth, has led us to focus our research on conversational AI, including both existing natural language processing chatbots and the next generation of generative AI. 

In studying these technologies, our goal is to understand the needs, wants, and aspirations of people earning LMI who could potentially benefit from this technology and to equip financial service providers with actionable insights to support this population with emerging technologies. 

This report summarizes some key findings from this work to date and makes the insights easily accessible through an updated Guide and Chatbot. Our findings point toward promising future directions for a better understanding of how this technology’s continued development can best support the needs of households living on LMI.