How Itaú is building generative AI for its entire customer base

Itaú, one of Brazil's largest banks, is building generative AI for its entire customer base through ia.i, a conversational layer activated by text or voice that unifies services such as checking accounts, credit, cards, and insurance, connecting customers to human support when needed. According to CTO Carlos Eduardo Mazzei, the goal is to make the technology almost unnoticeable while delivering simple, direct benefits, since an Itaú study with Grupo Consumoteca found that 80% of Brazilians want to better organize their financial lives and 65% want a financial copilot.

Launched in 2024 with the first Inteligência Itaú capabilities, ia.i reached approximately 300,000 customers in its first phase. At its core is Customer DNA, a financial context layer grounded in governance and responsible AI controls that helps the bank understand the needs, habits, and life stages of about 70 million customers, with GPT models among the components enriching this representation. OpenAI's range of models was key to serving both cost- and latency-sensitive cases and more complex reasoning needs in one product.

Behind the scenes, Itaú built IARA, a governance and orchestration platform that gives teams controlled access to different models, including OpenAI's, while managing cost per token, response accuracy, and responsible AI policies. IARA supports solutions such as the legal department's, which operates on more than 90 million documents and executes over 2 million tasks per month, with efficiency gains of 20% to 80%. The bank's AI First strategy also serves internal teams, with expectations of three times more time for customer relationships, service up to twice as fast, and conversations up to three times more effective. Itaú expects to make ia.i available to its entire customer base by the end of 2026, with planned capabilities including product simulations, sign-ups, and recurring financial analyses.

(Source：OpenAI)