Blog : Plan sponsor support | July 23, 2025

Innovation in action: How Vanguard is improving financial wellness outcomes

This is the third in an ongoing series: Well on Your Way® with Dina

Head of Participant Experience, Vanguard Workplace Solutions

There’s a whiteboard in my office with a “Do not erase!” note on it, even though it’s getting quite crowded. It displays ideas that come to me throughout the day and achievements that demonstrate how we’re improving the lives of millions of customers—one person and one company at a time. For example: 61% of participants who wanted to pay off their loans were successfully guided by our enhanced bots—easily improving their retirement readiness.¹

61 %

of participants successfully paid off their loans with help from our enhanced bot.¹

3 x

more participants enrolled in Vanguard Advice after viewing personalized videos.²

97 %

of participants in our virtual reality pilot were inspired to save more for retirement.³

Metrics like these are my daily reminders of the extraordinary value innovation can deliver—when it’s done the Vanguard way, with a laser focus on the needs of the people we serve. We call this “Innovation with a purpose.”

What does that mean, exactly? At Vanguard, our core mission has always been to provide the best in retirement services innovation for participants. We believe that new ideas are only worth pursuing if they can solve both your and your participants’ problems, all with the goal of improving your employees’ financial well-being.

We apply a multifaceted approach to innovation that starts with carefully listening to and understanding our clients’ needs and challenges. In today’s digital landscape, we also leverage emerging technology to revolutionize the way we serve our clients.

This approach makes it possible to deliver new features much more quickly—which is why my whiteboard is filling up!

I’m excited to share just a few of the many groundbreaking ways we’re improving our customers’ financial confidence.

Personal. Relevant. Motivating. AI-based personalization improves participant financial well-being.

In my first blog, Impact of the AI Revolution on Retirement Planning, I introduced the concept of hyperpersonalization to inspire action.

A quick refresher: Hyperpersonalization is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to tailor an experience to individual preferences, behaviors, or needs. We’re discovering that this detailed personalization goes a long way toward motivating participants to take positive actions that help them improve their financial health.

Personalized videos boost participant advice enrollments and improve financial wellness for more participants

Research tells us that personalized videos are more effective than their generic cousins, and we saw that in action with the rollout of our personalized Advice from Vanguard video earlier this year. Participants who were directed to the enrollment process via video enrolled in advice at a rate 3 times higher than those exposed to the banner campaign. This means that 3 times more people now have access to high-quality, low-cost financial guidance—advice that’s proven to give participants the best chance at financial success.² Amazing!

Encouraged by this result, we’re developing a personalized welcome video focused on helping participants get an early start on taking positive steps toward financial wellness. Like the Advice from Vanguard video, the welcome video is customized to each individual so that recommendations are more engaging and actionable. We can’t wait to see how it helps more participants not only improve their financial wellness but also achieve greater peace of mind.

Here’s a sneak preview of the video we’ll launch this year.

Our collaboration with Apple Vision Pro delivered inspiring results

Anyone who’s bored by financial health education hasn’t witnessed Vanguard’s incredibly cool immersive experience “Envision Your Future.”

Using Apple Vision Pro, participants embarked on a virtual reality adventure that helped them imagine and take control of their financial future. They received tailored investment advice, visualized big goals like owning a home, and even drove a car while learning about Roth contributions (a participant favorite!). Who knew that learning to improve financial well-being could be so much fun?

The “wow” effect: The feedback from our “Envision Your Future” pilot was overwhelmingly positive, with 97% of the participants saying the experience inspired them to save more for retirement.³

Make every participant encounter efficient and effective

We’re enhancing our AI-powered bots to ensure we can meet participants’ needs even more quickly and efficiently. To date, we’ve launched more than 70 bots, enabling participants to quickly accomplish tasks in their channels of choice.

Our AI-powered knowledge search management tool delivers detailed plan rule information in seconds—allowing call center agents to stay focused on their client.
Virtual assistants, such as transactional chatbots and a voice bot that handles address changes, not only are convenient and easy to use but also allow participants to complete tasks 24/7.

We’re also developing a proof of concept for a retirement readiness coach to help participants transition to retirement—a stage that is daunting for many. The coach is a conversational chat interface on our website, able to communicate in the participant’s language.

How it works:

The coach guides the conversation by asking participants to share their goals.
When the participant asks for help with retirement income, the AI agent gathers the participant’s available data then asks questions to create a customized recommendation.
For example, the AI agent could ask the participant when they plan to retire. Or it could ask the participant to correct a key piece of data that looks wrong.
And just like that, the uncertainty of stepping into retirement gives way to eager anticipation.

We believe that adding this conversational element to the process will increase participant engagement. Rather than a rigid, one-size-fits-all approach, it’s an adaptive experience that’s tailored to the individual.

Our mission is the same. Our tech-enabled innovation is transforming the journey.

What’s next for 2025? We have many new tools in the planning stages. I’ll share updates here, so check back to learn about their progress.

Our laser focus on improving financial well-being for our clients never wavers—it has been our north star for 50 years. Emerging technology has expanded our innovative toolkit, allowing us to deliver more progressive ways to support you and your participants on the road to a positive retirement.

One thing is certain: I’m going to need a much larger whiteboard in my office.

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Source:

¹Vanguard, 2025. Reflects participants that wanted to pay off their loan and successfully completed the transaction in our immersive virtual reality bot.

²Vanguard, 2025. Reflects participants enrolled in Vanguard advice after viewing their personalized video versus viewing a traditional campaign banner.

³Vanguard, 2025. Reflects participants that participated in our virtual reality pilot and indicated they were inspired to save more for retirement.