Korea Inclusive Finance Agency to launch AI-powered 'financial health checkup' service

The Korea Inclusive Finance Agency is developing a personalized AI counseling service that will analyze users' income and financial status and offer tailored credit management advice. The initiative aims to create a kind of "financial health checkup" — diagnosing users' financial vulnerabilities much as a medical exam identifies physical ones, then connecting them with the support and management tools they need.

Kim Eun-kyung, president of the Korea Inclusive Finance Agency and chair of the Credit Recovery Committee, said Friday at the opening of the agency's media lounge in Jung-gu, Seoul, that "the AI divide is the financial divide," adding that the agency must provide public-facing services to close that gap.

The agency has recently developed a demo version of an AI service for basic counseling and is running simulations. Kim said she determined that the existing AI upgrade plan was too supply-side focused and redirected efforts toward services for the general public.

The core of the service is delivering counseling results tailored to each individual user. With the user's consent, the system will analyze income and financial data, identify areas of vulnerability, and — where support is needed for housing costs, medical expenses or other needs — connect users with relevant welfare services.

Credit management features will also be built in. The service is designed to analyze the causes behind a drop in credit scores and suggest ways to improve them, send alerts when overdue payments occur, and provide each user with a report containing their financial status and counseling history. The goal is to let users see their own financial condition and the management steps they need to take going forward.

Kim likened the concept to a routine health checkup — just as people can review their medical results online after an exam, users who receive financial counseling will be able to see their status, counseling history and future management direction at a glance. The agency plans to build out the basic counseling component first this year, then upgrade related functions in stages using future budget allocations.

Work on integrating the agency with the Credit Recovery Committee is also continuing. Kim said internal review of legislation needed for the organizational merger is underway and that functional integration — including cross-referral of users between the two bodies — has advanced considerably. She said any relocation outside the capital region would need to account for vulnerable populations' access to the greater Seoul area. She also said the agency has secured about 700 billion won ($506 million) in funding for its microloan program from the financial sector and Samsung Group, and is working to expand participation to other large conglomerates including SK Group, LG Group and Hanwha.