Hipo | Devpost

As a group of millennials, this challenge truly spoke out to us. We understand the financial struggles of our generation first hand. Many of our friends have defaulted on their loans, ruined their credit score, and are hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt for pursuing an education. In spite of being so tech-savvy and forward thinking, our generation has been repeatedly criticized for lack of financial sense and long-term planning. We want to find a better way to approach these problems.

Our generation is full of like-minded people who live busy lifestyles occupied by a variety of events and opportunities. These range from obligations for academic enrichment (e.g. school, conferences, research, etc.) to a bevy of social events and hangouts in an increasingly inter-connected world. Given the hectic schedule and extreme demands of an average millennial, finances are usually the last things on our mind until it is too late. Trips to the bank are long and tedious compared to the rapid-fire communications on our devices, and the personal financial territory difficult to navigate for the inexperienced user. We were motivated by not only the need for financial stability, but also the recognition of the opportunity we have to improve the accessibility and experience of financial planning and engagement for our generation. Our target users are the millennials, a population that is busy living their lives, but are in critical need of assistance for planning and preparing for the future. They are the recent graduates, the incoming workforce and the beginning of a new generation of employees. However, they are often the greatest victims of debt, with countless stories of young people whose lives have been derailed by their financial situation. We propose a solution that aims to remedy this dilemma by connecting people, data, and the personal assistance of financial professionals.

Our product is composed of three main features: face-to-face communication, a simple data visualization interface, and the utilization of IBM’s powerful Artificial Intelligence capabilities in their Watson platform. Combined, these three components integrate to provide an objective and intelligent application for financial consultation. First, in our face-to-face communication, we integrate group video chat to connect all parties involved in important financial decision-making of our millennia’s life. This streamlines the communication involved in the process, and provides a more pleasant experience than the standard, anonymous phone call to the bank. Second, our dashboard visualizations extract the most important financial considerations in our target millennia’s life, and can help our user realize important trends in their saving and spending. Finally, IBM’s data analyses can process a huge quantity of financial information from Capital One’s platform. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, our integrated platform can capture significant insights in to our millennia’s financial lifestyle and tendencies. With HIPO’s use of displays and inter-personal interactions, we have enabled all involved parties to simultaneously view, learn, and discuss to make smarter options for the future.