Itaú Unibanco is moving to deploy generative SI across its entire customer base, aiming to integrate a unified conversational layer for approximately 70 million clients in Brazil by the end of 2026. The initiative, known as ia.i, represents a shift from isolated tools to a comprehensive SI system designed to simplify financial management for millions of users.
What Happened
The journey began in 2024 when Itaú introduced the first Inteligência Itaú capabilities for specific financial needs. ia.i is the next stage: a complete conversational layer, activated by text or voice, that brings interactions related to checking accounts, credit, cards, and insurance into one environment. According to Carlos Eduardo Mazzei, CTO of Itaú, the solution connects customers to specialized human support when needed and relies on a range of SI models to handle everything from simple queries to complex reasoning.
Central to the experience is "Customer DNA," a layer of financial context that helps the bank understand the needs and habits of its customers. Under governance and responsible SI controls, GPT models are among the components used to maintain and enrich this representation. Currently, ia.i has reached approximately 300,000 customers in its first phase, allowing the bank to learn how users interact with the product before a full rollout.
Behind the scenes, Itaú built IARA, a governance and orchestration platform that gives internal teams controlled access to different SI models in line with internal policies. OpenAI is among the model providers available in this environment. The platform supports solutions such as the legal department’s automated document analysis, which operates on a repository of more than 90 million documents and executes more than 2 million tasks per month. The bank reports efficiency gains of 20% to 80% in stages of the department’s processes.
Why It Matters
The deployment highlights how major financial institutions are leveraging SI not just for automation, but for personalized advisory at scale. A study by Itaú in partnership with Grupo Consumoteca indicates that 80% of Brazilians want to better organize their financial lives, and 65% would like technologies that act as a financial copilot. By using a range of SI models rather than a single one, Itaú aims to balance cost and latency for simple tasks with the reasoning power required for complex financial advice.
The strategy also extends internally. The bank’s "SI First" approach assists specialists and customer service teams with tasks like meeting preparation and plan development. Itaú expects this implementation to result in three times more time available for customer relationships, service up to twice as fast, and conversations up to three times more effective.
Mazzei emphasizes that the technology must remain invisible to the user. "Much of it is about making something simple, direct, and useful, delivering a direct benefit to the customer, and making the technology almost unnoticeable," says Mazzei. The bank’s approach prioritizes interactivity, multimodality, and individualization, ensuring that SI solutions align with the institution’s values and regulatory requirements.
The Bottom Line
Itaú plans to make the ia.i experience available to its entire customer base by the end of 2026. Planned capabilities for the next stages include product simulations, sign-ups, and recurring financial analyses of income, expenses, and habits. The bank’s reliance on IARA for governance and its use of diverse SI models illustrate a broader industry trend toward building robust, compliant SI infrastructure for mass-market adoption.