Corporate Insight Releases Research Series on AI Leaders in Financial Services

Five Reports Evaluate Virtual Assistants, AI-Powered Fintech Tools and AI Search Retrieval across Retirement, HSA, Banking, Brokerage and Annuity

New York, NY, Nov. 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Corporate Insight (CI), the leading provider of competitive intelligence and customer experience research to the financial services, insurance and healthcare industries, today announced findings from a series of research reports identifying leaders in customer-facing AI across financial services. Based on firsthand testing of virtual assistants, AI-powered fintech platforms and AI search engines, the research identifies the leaders best leveraging these new tools among retirement plan recordkeepers, HSA providers, fintechs, banks, brokerages and annuity providers.

“The leading virtual assistants in our testing complete real tasks inside the chat window: Robinhood’s Cortex sets price alerts and drafts trades, Voya’s assistant changes a participant’s 401(k) contribution rate, and Lively’s HSA assistant answered every test question we asked, typos included,” says Olivia Jack, director of financial services research at CI. “But median tools lag far behind these leaders, directing users to a page that might contain the answer, rather than answering a user’s questions in-chat. Customers who use ChatGPT and Claude every day will notice that difference the first time they use a firm’s chat.”

Key findings from each report highlight the leaders in each AI space:

Fidelity and Voya Financial lead retirement plan virtual assistants (Retirement Plan Monitor):

Fidelity and Voya Financial earned the only Excellent ratings among the eight recordkeeper virtual assistants (VAs) CI’s researchers tested. Both tools excelled at completing tasks in-window: At the time of the research, Voya PAL was the only tool in the report that lets participants change contribution rates directly in the chat, a task 79% of participants in CI’s 2025 Participant Survey rated as very or extremely important. Fidelity’s NetBenefits assistant delivers participant-specific balance and contribution data in-chat on both web and mobile and can hand participants off to a live representative within the chat window.

Notably, VA adoption in the retirement industry remains limited: Only eight of the 18 recordkeepers CI covers offer a virtual assistant, and only three of those eight offer a VA on mobile.

Lively sets the standard for HSA virtual assistants (Workplace Finance Monitor):

Lively’s LivelyAI earned the only Excellent rating among six HSA virtual assistants that CI’s researchers tested, being the only tool to answer 100% of CI’s test queries, including misspellings and casual phrasing such as “Can you lmk the account balance?” LivelyAI returns balance, eligibility and beneficiary details in-chat and completes beneficiary and contact updates without sending participants elsewhere. Its AI Mode lets participants click dashboard elements, such as the What’s Eligible button, to get an answer about qualified medical expenses in place.

Charles Schwab and Robinhood lead interactive customer service among fintechs and incumbents (Fintech Monitor):

Charles Schwab and Robinhood earned the two Excellent ratings among 11 firms CI evaluated for app-based virtual assistants, live chat, secure messaging and contact options. Robinhood’s Cortex sets price alerts and builds trade drafts in-chat, then asks users to confirm before any money moves. Schwab offers its assistant on the home screen and every main navigation screen and displays quote charts directly in its responses.

Origin, Public and Vera stand out among AI-powered fintechs (Fintech Monitor):

CI’s review of seven AI-focused fintechs found that AI has moved from add-on chatbots to core platform features. Origin’s AI Advisor, the first SEC-registered chatbot, recommends specific investments, scans internal and external accounts, and updates net worth projections based on hypothetical life events. Public’s Agents tool lets users automate trades, market monitoring and money movement when conditions they define are met, while Vera supports two-way voice conversations with its assistant, a novel feature in the research.

Fidelity, TruStage and USAA lead in AI content retrieval for annuity research (Annuity Monitor):

CI’s researchers tested how well ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity retrieve public site content from 18 annuity providers, using three prompts covering company background, annuity offerings and a comparison of two product types. Fidelity, TruStage and USAA earned Excellent ratings, with all three AI tools consistently retrieving their product types, company mission and comparison information.

Annuity firms that struggled in this research often had competitive information that AI tools could not reach or understand. In particular, rates in dynamically rendered tables, pricing behind producer logins and vague fee language all produced gaps.

“Across financial services and insurance, the leading AI-powered tools can perform common account actions, return the customer’s own data in the chat, and hand off to a live agent without making the customer start over or leave the chat window,” says Jack. “But firms also need to realize that many prospects will research their products using AI without ever visiting the public site themselves. Key details need to be in formats that ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity can read, or those prospects may never see them.”

Access the Reports

Organizations can contact CI to learn how to access the full reports. Media seeking key findings and analyst perspectives can contact CI’s press team to learn more.

Organizations covered in this research:

AInvest, Alight, Allianz, Athene, Bank of America, Brighthouse Financial, Charles Schwab, Chase, Chime, Cleo, Coinbase, Composer, Corebridge Financial, Current, Empower, Equitable, eToro, Fidelity, HealthEquity, HSA Bank, Jackson, Lincoln Financial, Lively, MassMutual, Merrill, Monarch, Nationwide, New York Life, Optum Bank, Origin, Pacific Life, Principal, Prudential, Public, Revolut, Robinhood, SoFi, TIAA, Transamerica, TruStage, USAA, Vanguard, Venmo, Vera, Voya Financial and Webull

About Corporate Insight

Corporate Insight (CI) delivers competitive intelligence, user experience research and consulting services to the nation’s leading financial services, insurance and healthcare organizations. As the recognized industry leader in customer experience research for over 30 years, CI offers a best-in-class research platform and unique approach of analyzing the actual customer experience to help organizations advance their competitive position in the marketplace.

Patrick Flood
Corporate Insight
pflood@corporateinsight.com