With 40% of U.S. households at risk of running short of their retirement savings, TIAA is on a mission to combat the retirement crisis facing the United States. A leader in lifetime income, TIAA is continuously looking for ways to strengthen its operations, enhance its technology and innovate new solutions to help address this crisis—including investing in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“We’re embracing AI as a tool to open a new world of possibilities to delight our clients and strengthen our operations as part of our mission to fight the American retirement crisis,” said Sastry Durvasula, Chief Information & Client Services Officer at TIAA. “We at TIAA are harnessing AI, including Generative AI, to drive innovation in our product and service offerings and equip our employees with more relevant and robust information to help our clients.”
The company launched TIAA gAIt (its proprietary Generative AI tech platform), expanding TIAA’s focus on AI from traditional to GenAI. TIAA gAIt, incubated by TIAA Client Tech Labs, leverages GenAI technologies and large language models from various sources to bring the next generation of technology to clients, partners and associates.
To date, TIAA gAIt is:
- Helping TIAA associates more quickly and insightfully answer client questions.
- Giving clients a better, simpler search experience with answers to complex questions on tiaa.org.
- Creating content that digests complex topics and translates into simpler terms.
- Allowing Nuveen Asset Management to easily research and analyze large amounts of public research materials.
- Raising associate awareness in cyber security through AI-powered phishing and learning programs.
TIAA has used AI since 2022, starting with a strategic partnership with Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI (CCAI) to enhance how the company provide services to millions of participants. Since then, TIAA has leveraged the partnership to further enhance the client experience, improve analysis and optimize self-service for more effective and personalized interactions with the National Contact Center (NCC).
To ensure the best use of AI and GenAI solutions, TIAA developed a Responsible AI Policy that provides a foundation for TIAA gAIt and AI use within the company. Given the powerful nature of GenAI, the policy, ensures TIAA’s use of GenAI considers associated risks and potential unintended consequences.
The company is focused on upskilling and reskilling of associates in AI leveraging its award-winning TIAA Guild Network. It recently launched “Achieve in AI,” with tailored programs for women associates through their Business Resources Group (BRG).
“Our new proprietary GenAI platform is a ‘game-changing’ training tool for our associates, regardless of role,” said Swatee Singh, TIAA’s Chief Data & AI Officer. “From onboarding new hires, to spreading cybersecurity awareness, ‘TIAA gAIt’ offers an effective and ethical colleague learning option.”
Through TIAA gAIt and other uses of traditional AI, TIAA, a leader in lifetime income, is thinking about their technology investments not just for today, but also for the future and how they might impact solutions and customers down the line.