Transforming Financial Wellness through Artificial Intelligence and the Metaverse

Broadcast Retirement Network's Jeffrey Snyder discusses improving financial wellness and financial literacy through AI and the Metaverse with SS&C Technologies' Phil Carden and Alicia Hartjen.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

This morning on BRN Finance, transforming financial wellness through artificial intelligence and the metaverse. Part one of our discussion and joining me now to discuss this is Alicia Hartin, head of product development for financial wellness, and Phil Carden, head of digital innovation technologies, both with SS&C Technology. Phil, great to meet you.

Alicia, welcome back to the program. Thanks for having us. And Alicia, always, always a pleasure to talk financial wellness with you.

We recently had your colleague Danielle on, but I want to ask you, what's the current state of financial wellness platforms?

Alicia Hartjen, SS&C Technologies

Yeah, it's great to see you again, Jeff. Although it's safe to say that the financial services industry is not typically an early adopter of new technology, we are seeing AI being embraced as a way to enhance the financial wellness experience. One of the key innovations is around generative AI, similar to what you may have seen with ChatGBT or Google Gemini.

And the real benefit here is individuals can have a conversation around their financial wellness needs and experience a back and forth that helps them find what they're looking for. So it's a much more engaging, a dynamic experience. We're leveraging it in our financial wellness solution as a way to learn more about individuals and enhance that experience.

So you can imagine, instead of a traditional quiz, the Gen I agent, we call our Sage, can ask the quiz questions, direct the participants on their financial wellness journey, all in a single discussion.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Yeah, it sounds, it's very impressive. And I know a little, we were joking before about in the green room about AI, and I just downloaded the new iPhone software. And I've been playing around with it.

I would consider myself a novice. So very interesting to see it adapted in our industry, which, as you said, is pretty, pretty glacial in terms of how it moves. Phil, it's great to meet you.

The metaverse, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, let's start from the technology side. How do you leverage those technologies? And I wouldn't say bolt them on, but fit them into, you know, the retirement and financial services ecosystem.

Phil Carden, SS&C Technologies

Yeah. Likewise. Great to meet you too.

So I guess our process really starts with kind of research and understanding the needs that are there and the users that we're trying to appeal to and work with. So we look at the, you know, the generations that are coming through, the demographics, how they're currently interacting, what they, you know, this is a generation that's grown up playing Fortnite, really rich experiences. It's also a generation, sadly, where 80 percent odd, depending on which survey you look at, will get their financial advice and information from social media as opposed to, you know, a more traditional or trusted source.

So we have to understand the starting point. Then we have to do that research. We have to do POCs.

We also have to test ourselves. So we've done internal showcases. We've done internal developments.

We need to learn through our own application of these technologies and the integration of those and then start engaging with clients in a controlled and meaningful way and, again, gain that information as to what they liked, what they didn't like, what resonated, what didn't resonate, and really just kind of like take a step-by-step approach to starting to evolve from what, as Alicia says, maybe in some ways has been not the most fast-paced evolving technological background to something that's really starting to embrace these technologies going forward.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Yeah, it sounds, Phil, it sounds very iterative. And I was going to say trial and error, but I don't think there's error. I think it's just learn, you know, your own generative AI in terms of seeing how things kind of evolve and change over time.

Just to follow up on that, Phil, I mean, are we seeing better outcomes, retirement outcomes, financial outcomes as a result of deploying these newer technologies? So I guess does it actually work and actually improve things for people?

Phil Carden, SS&C Technologies

Yeah. So we're starting to build some evidence towards that. I think, as we said, we're early in our journey, but there is some evidence that we can absolutely build on.

So we understand that the experiences that these people use and the type of experiences that we're talking about here do engage and retain the attention of these younger generations. We see that through, you know, the platforms that we've talked about and that are really growing. We see that through other industries.

And there's a whole host of research that really kind of, and Alicia will touch on this, she knows this really well, about how important gamification can be for really embedding that information. So, one, we know where these people are trying to get their information. And two, we have that science and that evidence-based outcomes to help us develop these services.

I think as time goes on, we'll really start to then build that bank of evidence. And as you say, not trial and error, but definitely evolve and learn which aspects of the technologies that we're starting to put in front of these consumers, they really go to, they really come back to. And we obviously have some methodologies that we apply to test the understanding and the engagement.

And we have a whole host of data that we can use to really keep refining and iterating our way through this. Yeah.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

And Alicia, I mean, to Phil's point, it is iterative. And your firm has so many different types of clients, but you have a focus on retirement programs and systems. How is this being deployed with some of your clients?

And are you seeing great success from the clients vis-a-vis the participant outcomes and the interactions?

Alicia Hartjen, SS&C Technologies

Yeah. So, there's a lot of applications throughout the retirement value chain. But when you think about financial wellness programs, we're really looking to deploy it to enhance the participant experience.

And we can certainly talk more about that and specifically how it can be used from a gamification perspective. But equally important, I think this is an important area to touch on, is having guardrails and policies in place so that the technologies are being leveraged in ways that make it contained, it's improved, it's vetted by compliance teams. And I think that's the best way to ensure that the financial services industries and our clients are comfortable leveraging these types of technologies is knowing that there are processes in place to ensure that everything is secure, it's vetted, it's providing guidance to help participants with their financial challenges in ways that are meaningful for them.

So, once we get kind of past that and helping our clients understand those guardrails and policies and have a comfort level with the generative AI models, then our priority is really using it to enhance that wellness experience. And there's a lot of use cases there on how we can use it from a gamification perspective to have generative AI. Ask those questions, build a response, tell them how they're doing, guide them into their next steps.

But there's also a lot of use cases around how to drive participants to engage more with advisors as well. So, there's a lot of excitement there. And then the last thing that I think is worth touching on is the metaverse is an area that we see even a different set of opportunities with our clients.

And this is where it's really a community. So, you can think of it as an area where advisors, participants, really anybody can go into this community environment and they can leverage these financial wellness tools, whether it's going on a financial wellness quest, whether it's engaging with an advisor. Our clients can have booths to introduce different capabilities or benefits to their participants even outside of retirement from a more holistic employee perspective, hold seminars in the metaverse.

As you can see, we're full of ideas on ways to leverage these new technologies that are really exciting. And we're working with clients to introduce all of these in different ways.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

So, Alicia, could you see a Jeff Snyder avatar in the SS&C metaverse where I'm just walking around talking about retirement something or other?

Alicia Hartjen, SS&C Technologies

I feel like Bill could have that live in the next 10 minutes. So, absolutely.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Yeah. We definitely have to try that out really soon, Jeff, for sure. I think that would be really interesting.

Hopefully, you can improve my build and everything through the... I want to look like that Luke Skywalker figure.

Phil Carden, SS&C Technologies

Sorry, Jeff. It's a full discretion. So, you can make an avatar that looks like yourself.

But a lot of people pretty quickly go for the dinosaur outfit or the chicken suit. And if that's your place of comfort, then so be it.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Yeah. That sounds great. We were talking about cats, so I could have a set of cats following me around.

Phil, Alicia, we're going to conclude. This is part one of our conversation. I should have said that at the beginning of the program.

When we come back, we're going to talk more about the implementation tomorrow, what the implementation and what that looks like, and how to actually go about the kind of the nitty-gritty of implementing these technologies. Phil, Alicia, we'll talk to you tomorrow. Thanks for joining us.

And we look forward to our conversation tomorrow morning. Thank you. Thank you very much.

And don't forget to subscribe to our daily newsletter, The Morning Pulse, for all the news in one place. Details, of course, at our website. And as I said, we're back again tomorrow for part two of our conversation with Alicia and Phil.

You're not going to want to miss it. Until then, I'm Jeff Snyder. Stay safe.

Keep on saving. And don't forget, roll with the changes.

TheStreet

This story was originally published December 31, 2025 at 4:30 AM.