Artificial intelligence (AI) specialist, Sevaka, has partnered with debt management firm, Debtfix, to build a new tool aimed at making hardship easier for both KiwiSaver members and providers.
KiwiSaver providers including Milford, the NZX-owned SuperLife and the Christian scheme, which already work with Debtfix to help manage hardship claims, would be among the first to adopt the AI-based tool once it goes live, according to a release.
Clive Fernandes, Sevaka founder, said the AI-based service would streamline the fraught KiwiSaver hardship withdrawal process that absorbs considerable scheme administration resources and member time.
“The hardship tool “collates all required information/documentation (which currently takes most of the time) and flags important notes for the human assessor,” Fernandes said. “Ultimately, the supervisor will make the final decision.”
KiwiSaver hardship applications have remained above-average over the last couple of years with almost $515 million paid out under the relief clause last year on behalf of 58,460 members.
The increase in applications has put a strain on KiwiSaver admin resources as well as sparking some controversy around the lack of consistent withdrawal criteria across the sector.
Fernandes said many providers already partner with Debtfix to help manage hardship claims, creating a de facto “partially centralised solution”.
“Given the potential variability in service levels across providers, there is a very strong case for a shared approach,” he said. “At a minimum, the industry should have greater transparency through publicly available metrics showing how providers are performing, such as processing times, approval rates, and member outcomes.”
Sevaka and Debtfix are talking to the majority of providers about adopting the new AI-backed hardship tool, Fernandes said.
And AI is being tapped by a NZ company to attack another vexed financial services admin chokepoint, anti-money laundering (AML) compliance.
Last week, local AML firm, UpSkill, launched a new AI tool intended fast-track compliance in a famously complex function.
In a release, the company says the UpSkillAI Assistant offers a robust and non-hallucinated AML compliance service trained on NZ-specific legal documents and the firm’s in-house expertise.
“Instead of searching through hundreds of pages to find the right document, section, guidance, or definition, users can simply ask a question and receive an immediate, reliable response drawn from the correct source material,” the release says.
Jeanette Kreft, UpSkill founder, said compliance obligations for local AML-reporting entities are subject to constant change governed by complex legislation and multiple regulations.
“It’s just not feasible to manually navigate that volume of material any longer,” Kreft said.
The government has moved to ease some AML reporting duties with the regime oversight set to be unified under the Department of Internal Affairs by July this year as the Financial Markets Authority and the Reserve Bank of NZ wind down operations in the area.