Helping South Africans build financial confidence with the help of AI

Enter Coach, Sanlam’s intelligent AI-powered financial guide. Available 24/7, Coach helps ordinary South Africans understand their financial habits, strengths and blind spots through simple, human-style conversations. Think of it as a fitness trainer, but for your finances.
Coach doesn’t serve generic advice. It gets to know you through your behaviours, challenges and goals, then delivers tailored insights based on your unique money DNA. Coach listens before it responds, learns before it guides, and supports instead of shouting.
Whether you’re a disciplined budgeter or a spontaneous spender, Coach helps you understand why you act the way you do and what you can do to improve. Who wouldn’t want that?

From breaking money taboos to building financial confidence

In our previous marketing campaign, The F Word, we invited South Africans to break the taboo around money, knowing that for many, money conversations were simply not a thing growing up (other than parents lamenting their lack of it, right?). And yet, research shows that open financial conversations lead to better financial health. This inspired us to think about how to get the country talking about The F(inances) Word.

To spark those conversations, we introduced Money Personalities. Through quick AI-led chats, people could uncover how their mindset shapes their money decisions – whether they’re the Prepared Protector or the Spontaneous Buyer. The insights helped thousands of people take more informed financial action, knowing their financial strengths and weakness, and what they were doing well and what they needed to improve.

The ‘why’ behind it all?

The ordinary South African doesn’t have access to a financial adviser that can coach them on the journey of financial health, leaving them stumbling about in the dark. Conversely, the ability to use AI to deliver personalised guidance shines light on the potential of a healthy financial tomorrow. In this way, AI is a powerful tool to help households change their financial futures and enable them to live with confidence. It’s the difference between sending your children to the school and/or university of their dreams; living the retirement you’ve always imagined; and/ or leaving your loved ones a legacy that will impact even generations to come – or not.

The next evolution: The F Factor

Our latest campaign, The F Factor, takes things a step further. Instead of helping you understand your financial personality, we now help you identify your top three focus areas for real improvement. Coach now leads users through a deeper, more intuitive conversation designed to assess their financial position. Using a smart scoring engine, it evaluates responses and produces a personalised Financial Focus Report, highlighting the areas that will have the biggest impact, right now.

No overwhelming checklists. No judgment. Just clarity, direction and momentum.

Every report includes:

• Your financial focus theme, i.e. your overall positioning
  
• Your top three priority areas, uniquely matched to your situation
  
• Why each area matters, made relevant to your life context
  
• Practical next steps backed by Sanlam products and advisory services where applicable.

Intelligent marketing built for the individual

The real innovation is the AI-driven insights that completely transform how we communicate with customers. Instead of bombarding users with irrelevant product ads, we use their Financial Focus Report to guide every touchpoint moving forward. Email, WhatsApp, digital ads are all customised to the customer’s identified priorities, meaning no spam and no guesswork. Perhaps most importantly, it means customers receive the support they need where it matters the most.

AI can never replace human advisers, but it can make expert guidance more accessible, less intimidating and more actionable. Coach marks the beginning of a new era of empathetic, data-led financial support and the opportunity to truly champion client centricity – with much help from AI (with all its bells and whistles).