AI-Powered Personalisation Combats Customer Disengagement for Financial Sector

Sunday, 8 March 20268 min read1 views

Legal & General (L&G) is leveraging AI and behavioural science to enhance customer engagement, particularly in retirement planning. Their strategy aims to transform customer disengagement into confident decision-making through highly personalised communications.

What Happened

•L&G is implementing AI-driven personalisation strategies to address customer apathy towards complex financial products.
•The approach combines behavioural science principles with AI technology to tailor communications.
•The goal is to move customers from a state of 'ostrich effect' (avoidance) to 'decision confidence'.
•This initiative targets improved engagement with retirement planning, a historically challenging area for customer interaction.
•The company seeks to simplify complex financial information through bespoke messaging.
•The strategy focuses on making financial choices more accessible and less intimidating for consumers.
•Source: Marketing Week, 5 March 2026

Why It Matters for NZ Marketers

•New Zealand's financial services, particularly KiwiSaver and superannuation, face similar challenges in member engagement.
•NZ marketers can adapt L&G's model to simplify complex product information, improving customer understanding and participation.
•The 'ostrich effect' is prevalent in NZ for long-term financial planning, offering a clear opportunity for AI-driven solutions.
•Enhanced personalisation could boost financial literacy and informed decision-making among New Zealanders.
•This approach provides a framework for NZ brands to make abstract benefits of long-term savings more tangible.
•It presents a blueprint for overcoming customer inertia in sectors beyond finance, including insurance and utilities.

Strategic Implications

•Investigate AI tools for hyper-personalisation to deliver relevant, timely customer communications.
•Integrate behavioural science insights into marketing strategies to understand and influence customer psychology.
•Prioritise simplifying complex product narratives, using data to identify specific customer pain points.
•Develop clear metrics to track engagement improvements and decision-making confidence resulting from personalisation efforts.
•Explore cross-sector applications for AI-powered engagement, moving beyond traditional marketing channels.
•Focus on building trust by providing clear, actionable information that empowers customer choices.

Future Trend Signals

•The increasing reliance on AI and machine learning for deep customer understanding and tailored interactions.
•A growing emphasis on behavioural economics in marketing to drive specific customer actions.
•The shift from mass communication to individualised, context-aware messaging across all industries.
•The evolution of customer relationship management towards proactive, predictive engagement models.

Sources

L&G on using personalisation to tackle retirement’s ‘ostrich effect’ — Marketing Week

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