There’s technology people use because they must, and there’s technology people use because they want to. Usually, there’s very little overlap between them…
Usually.
Otomo could very well change that trend. Otomo champions self-driving finance, which they’re making accessible to credit unions on a massive scale.
Read on to learn more about what that means—and how they’re doing it.
What Is Self-Driving Finance?
So, you’ve heard of self-driving cars, right? You plug in a destination, and then your car figures out how to get there and then… drives there.
Self-driving cars use sensors, machine learning systems, and advanced algorithms to create and maintain a map of the car’s surroundings. This way, they can safely deliver passengers to their destination, without requiring constant steering input from the driver.
Self-driving finance is similar. First, a consumer identifies and chooses one or more desired financial outcomes. Then, the platform/app figures out how to help them achieve those goals.
Self-driving finance uses AI and consumer inputs to understand each person’s circumstances, income patterns, and comfort levels. This way, it can suggest a personalized autonomous financial plan, and—if the person desires—execute this plan.
Like self-driving cars, users have complete control and may stop or change direction at any time.
A few examples of goals include:
- Paying down debt. A member might prioritize paying off a credit card, student loans, or other debt holding them back.
- Building a nest egg. Members may want to reach a certain goal, such as $10k in their savings account.
- Saving for something big. Whether it be a party, a vacation, college, or a house, members often set aside money for tangible goals.
- Investing for the future. Many members may feel it’s hard to remember to invest, but when it’s done for them? Different story.
But is it just a smarter savings and investment technology? Not quite. Self-driving finance doesn’t always result in an autonomous financial plan. It could involve products (like a mortgage) or customer journeys (like building credit).
The idea is that consumers don’t want to be told to do something… they don’t want to be reminded to do something…
They want it to be done for them, effortlessly.
Self-driving finance is the strategy of letting technology assist and execute consumer financial goals to create more financial well-being and ease in members’ daily lives.
How Does Otomo Work?
Otomo provides consumer-centric, embeddable self-driving finance to credit unions. Similar to how Netflix tees up the perfect movie playlist, Otomo’s AI-curated platform removes the forethought, guesswork, and effort from consumers’ daily financial lives.
Otomo was created by consumer product leaders who were behind blockbuster success stories like Airbnb and Instagram. It was designed to deliver financial wellbeing to members through an immersive, engaging, and delightful experience.
Otomo also aligns credit union business models and member interests. By guiding members through personalized financial journeys and understanding their needs, Otomo helps credit unions easily deliver hyper-relevant products and services members actually need and value.
And providing this service produces a whole new stream of shared non-interest income.
Credit unions benefit from:
- Increased member engagement and loyalty;
- Non-interest income generated through cross-sell and commerce; and
- Leveraging latent data to provide new value to members.
Otomo gets up and running quickly, too. But the biggest benefits are to the members—to the users themselves. They get technology that they must use (like any banking app), but they also get technology they want to use.
Consider the useability of banking technology. We wrote about how to eliminate common UX errors in banking apps. We could easily write more about bringing elements from user-friendly apps into banking.
For example, millions of people use Acorns (which uses some self-driving finance principles) because it’s attractive and simple. Millions of people use Pinterest because it’s an easy, beautiful way to curate ideas and goals.
Otomo’s platform is informed by these consumer-centric apps to create an experience members love.
It’s attractive. It’s simple. It’s user-friendly. It helps people find what they’re interested in, and it doesn’t ask users to do things themselves.
Basically, Otomo keeps members engaged with your credit union by transforming their financial journey through an app—one that feels like the apps they already know and love. Plus, it delivers the outcomes that benefit them in their daily financial lives.
And it’s all wrapped in a ready-to-embed experience that members can fall in love with.
Additional Resources
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