Today, we took our first steps towards Artificial Intelligence (AI) launching our new chatbot Artie. 

Artie will appear on both our KiwiSaver and Investment funds websites and will answer questions online.

Questions that can't be immediately answered will be handled by our customer service team. 

CEO Sam Stubbs says it's the first stage of Simplicity's AI-driven Robo advice and education platform.

“Artie will ultimately provide personalised advice, and where the situation is complex, we’ll refer clients to fee-based independent financial advisors,” he said.

“It will take a couple of years to fully achieve, and we’ll need to be licensed to give advice, but it's all doable,” said Sam.

See NZ Herald story on Artie and Simplicity's AI launch here. 

Simplicity has been working under the radar for six months to develop Artie, supported by specialist firm Jude. It intends to make it’s platform open source, so others can adopt it if they wish to provide third-party advice.

“Open Source is the best way to get a lot of transparent advice and education into the hands of all NZers,” he said. “It’s necessary given the range and inconsistency of advice delivered via many traditional channels,\" he said.

“We need to learn from the Australian experience,” said Stubbs.

The Australian Regulator, ASIC, have admonished the Australian banks and AMP for the quality of their financial advice. They found that in 75% of the files reviewed, the advisers did not comply with the duty to act in the best interests of their clients. It also found in 10% of cases the advice was likely to leave the customer in a “significantly worse financial position”.

The companies that were exposed in Australia are the owners of the ASB, ANZ, Westpac, BNZ and AMP in NZ.

“As a non-profit, we’re getting on with providing a financial advice platform that people can trust,” said Sam.

“AI and open banking are a threat to business models based on outdated distribution networks and expensive and excessive marketing.”

“Transparent, sensible, online advice is much more useful to Kiwis than cheesy, ‘feel good’ advertising. And transparency is the enemy of extortionate fees and poor advice.\"

Artie is integrated with Facebook so users will need a Facebook account to interact with the chatbot. In time, we'll have more options available for users.