Inspiration
Our inspiration for building FinovaAI came from the overwhelming complexity and information overload in the world of investment finance. From real-time market changes to building a personalized investment strategy, the tools available today often cater only to the experienced. As tech enthusiasts and beginners in the finance world ourselves, we saw an opportunity to simplify investment decisions using the power of AI, especially Perplexity's Sonar and its deep web research capability. Thus, FinovaAI was born—a smart, reliable AI companion designed to guide everyone, from beginners to pros, through the ever-evolving world of finance.
What it does
FinovaAI is a comprehensive AI-powered platform for all things investment. It features:
- Finova Advisor: A conversational AI that answers your questions about stocks, crypto, mutual funds, and more.
- NewsBoard: A live financial news aggregator that curates important updates, stock movements, and market trends in real time.
- AI Investment Plan Generator: Just answer a few simple questions about your goals, risk appetite, and interests, and FinovaAI creates a tailored investment plan that evolves with your financial journey.
How we built it
We built FinovaAI using Python, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Flask to create a fast and interactive web app. For natural language understanding and investment chatbot named Advisor, we integrated Perplexity's Sonar model via their OpenAI-compatible API. The Newsboard fetches live financial data using Alpha Vantage and NewsAPI, the same reliable source used by popular finance sites. This API helps us deliver real-time news, stock movements, and trends with high accuracy. The AI Investment Plan Generator leverages the LLM to interpret user input and generate personalized strategies with contextual awareness.
Challenges we ran into
Creating accurate and compliant financial responses using AI was a major challenge. We had to ensure our Advisor stayed within regulatory boundaries while offering insightful answers. Integrating real-time data from FinChat.io’s API required careful data handling and filtering to ensure relevance and clarity. Designing a cohesive frontend experience that simplifies finance for beginners was also a challenge, requiring multiple iterations and feedback cycles.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We’re proud of how FinovaAI seamlessly brings together advisory, news, and investment planning in one place. Our integration of Perplexity's Sonar model has resulted in highly contextual, fast, and relevant responses. The AI Plan Generator is one of the highlights—it produces highly personalized, actionable strategies in seconds. We're also proud of the clean and responsive UI, making finance feel more approachable to users of all experience levels.
What we learned
We learned a lot about financial data integration, handling APIs like Alpha Vantage, and working with LLMs such as Perplexity's Sonar. We gained experience in balancing user-friendliness with technical accuracy and compliance. This project deepened our skills in Python and Flask development and gave us a strong grasp of how to leverage AI effectively in fintech applications.
What's next for FinovaAI
We’re currently working on new features to enhance FinovaAI further:
- Portfolio Tracker Integration with live performance analysis and suggestions.
- Crypto Sentiment Analyzer using social media and news signals.
- Finova Academy, an AI-powered educational module for learning investing basics interactively, by using Sonar's web citation to collate the best guides and tutorials for beginner investors.
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