Itaú puts AI on its app home screen to change how customers use banking

Itaú turns its banking app into an AI conversation

Itaú has started putting artificial intelligence directly on the home screen of its banking app. The new experience, called ia.i, allows customers to talk to the bank through text or voice using natural language.

The idea is to remove one of the most common steps in banking apps: finding the right feature before doing anything.

Instead of searching for Pix, financial information or a specific product, customers can simply describe what they need. ia.i interprets the request and can either provide an answer or direct the user to the appropriate part of the app.

The experience is initially available to around 300,000 customers, with Itaú planning to gradually expand it across its customer base by the end of 2026.

Conversation starts replacing menus

At launch, ia.i can help customers understand their financial situation, manage everyday finances, learn about banking products and services and complete some transactions, including Pix payments.

The system can also consider information such as the customer's relationship with the bank and financial context to provide more relevant responses.

That does not mean traditional navigation is disappearing. When tapping through the app is still the fastest way to complete something, the AI can simply direct the customer to the right feature.

The biggest change is not what the app does, but how users reach it.

Itaú had already been expanding its use of generative AI across different parts of the business, including investments, customer service and other financial experiences.

Even the campaign was designed to feel less digital

Itaú took an unusual approach to promoting the new AI experience. The campaign created by Africa Creative was shot on film and used physical objects for visual effects that could easily have been created digitally.

Even the waveform representing the AI's voice was built using glass, plastic and lighting. The soundtrack was recorded on tape with acoustic instruments.

The message is deliberate. Itaú wants to present AI as technology that expands human capabilities rather than simply replacing people.

The more interesting experiment, however, will happen inside the app.

If customers become used to telling their bank what they need instead of searching through menus, artificial intelligence may end up changing something much more fundamental: the banking interface itself.