A new verbal AI tool designed to support pension teams is due to go live with its first client this month.
The AI pensions manager assistant, developed by Financial Education, led by founder Saq Hussain, has been created to answer frequently asked questions through a voice-based interface.
The assistant is designed to integrate into company websites or employee portals, providing accessible, on-demand support. It is tailored to the employer’s pension scheme and benefits rather than to individual users, and it is designed to provide guidance and information rather than financial advice. It can explain what a target date fund is or clarify the meaning of the annual allowance, but will not offer personalised investment recommendations.
Hussain highlights that the tool has been extensively trained on retirement options such as drawdown and annuities to help members better understand these often complex topics before consulting a human adviser.
He notes that pensions staff typically spend between one and two hours each day managing member queries, which adds around 48 to 50 working days per year. The AI assistant is designed to reduce this workload by automating responses to common questions and thus improving efficiency.
Hussain says: “It’s not a chatbot. It’s a full verbal conversation with an AI bot that’s fully trained on what your benefits are or what your pension structure is. It offers a conversational way to learn about subjects that can be difficult to grasp from written materials alone.”
Hussain also notes that many people hesitate to ask basic pension questions out of embarrassment or the fear that they should already know the answers. He says the AI assistant enables confidential conversations where users can ask any question without concern about judgment.
The tool was built around a fictional scheme, but due to high demand during testing, the developer released a video walkthrough instead of live demos.
Financial Education is also developing a separate benefits assistant designed to help employees better understand eligibility and access rules across the full spectrum of workplace benefits, which would operate independently from the pensions tool.
Hussain adds: “So far, we haven’t seen any other voice-based assistants that offer this level of integration with scheme-specific information. While others may develop similar tools in time, this is currently unique in combining conversational AI with pension and benefits knowledge tailored to individual employers.”
