By Roy Urrico
What began as development of the “first-ever smart financial calculator” ended up being something “sexy,” according to CEO Tim Pranger of Salt Lake City-based Appli, a financial technology artificial intelligence (AI) startup. Appli announced the launch of its calculator designed to reshape how lenders and marketers interact with potential borrowers digitally.
The brainchild of Pranger, Appli's tool allows credit unions and banks to create AI-powered personalized experiences directly on their websites or apps. “Appli is flipping the script on how lenders and marketers connect with potential borrowers online,” said Pranger. “Our smart financial calculator does not just crunch numbers – it creates a personalized financial journey for each visitor. It is like having a knowledgeable consultant available 24/7 on your website.”
Pranger told Finopotamus, “I do not think I have ever said before that is a sexy calculator. It was kind of fun to make something that seemed outdated, really fun and cool on the front end. We are just excited to launch it and get people using it.”
Appli, which applied “A” and “I” as bookends to create its monicker, uses generative AI to build trust, and boost digital engagement and application conversion rates. “We use AI to drive confidence and loan conversion scoring,” said Pranger. He explained the system provides analysis of desired products based on each user's unique financial situation, helping to overcome common barriers in the loan application process.
How It Works
“The whole goal of the venture is to build smart financial calculators and interactions that allow members and customers alike to get the information that they need prior to applying for a loan. I think one of the biggest misses today is that lending is still kind of a black box,” explained Pranger.
“Many potential borrowers hesitate to apply for loans simply because they’re uncertain about qualification or have fear of rejection,” Pranger further explained. “Our AI-driven confidence models address these concerns head-on, giving users a clear picture of their options before they commit to a full application.”
Pranger recalled Appli wanted to Apple’s improve the user experience. “We tried to look at the calculator UX (user experience) and make it something that stood out. We track and ask for additional details because of the confidence models that we have built in.” “Not only do we have one AI running, we actually have two. When they engage, we are asking for credit score income, monthly debt, and different things like that, which calculators today are not capturing and there is no PII (personally identifiable information), so it is very safe for us to collect at a general level.”
Once the applicant views recommendations, Pranger continued, an AI piece runs in the background and models the confidence based on the input numbers provided about their likelihood to qualify. “We're calling it financial intelligence; sitting in the background saying, ‘Are you ready to continue?’ It is very personalized going beyond what your rate is going to be. We pre-populate the rates and then we personalize the entire experience from there.”
The cloud-based Appli platform also offers data insights for marketers and lenders. By tracking interactions from initial calculation to final conversion, Appli, according to Pranger, helps financial institutions build a deeper understanding of applicants’ needs and preferences.
Calculating for Credit Unions
From a credit union perspective, Pranger said, “It is an amazing marketing tool because we are tracking all of the interactions. Let us say you are the chief marketing officer. I can come to you and say, ‘Hey, deploying these financial calculators will actually drive conversions on your website, as well as understand the engagement and opportunities that are coming to your website that you're not currently tracking.’” He listed elements such as geographic location, income, estimated credit score, average monthly debt, DTI (debt-to-income ratio), and confidence scores of their likelihood to qualify for a specific loan.
The calculator is white labeled and fully deployed on the financial institution’s website. Said Pranger, “They can update the calculator at any time. They do not need me to do anything. They have full management of the calculators, whether it is on the site, in the mobile app, or other platforms.”
Pranger noted that Appli can set up the initial trainings, work with credit unions and other financial institutions to set up the base calculators and provide logins and go live across platforms. “We provide, the moment a calculator is created, we give them frame instructions, enablement instructions, and in-page or standalone page instructions for how they want to deploy it.”
Personalized Conversion Pathways
Appli does not actually work on loans directly. “We don't help originate, the mortgage itself, but we do – based on our confidence scoring – give (the applicant) a personalized conversion pathway,” said Pranger.
Pranger offered some examples. “Let us say we have high confidence or good confidence that this person is going to qualify for a mortgage. The button that is shown to them in that situation is, ‘Hey, go apply for this mortgage,’ If they are low confidence, it is, ‘Hey, let's book a meeting and talk about your options and figure out exactly where you're at.’” Pranger pointed out when the applicant books that meeting, the lender receives all of the details input into the calculator.
“We are scoring the confidence zero to a 100% confidence, and they have the ability to add labels on top of that and group it,” Pranger continued. “So, the member would see the label they have and then the credit union would see the exact percentage of confidence. Then they would be able to see that in each individual interaction as well as in aggregate.”
Lead Generation Coming Soon
Appli's smart calculator can be configured for any loan or borrowing experience and deployed quickly, allowing community financial institutions to rapidly strengthen their digital offerings.
Pranger is known for creating user-friendly software solutions. Before founding Appli, Pranger co-founded POPi/o, where he played a key role in developing a video banking solution. After POPi/o's acquisition by Eltropy, he served as head of product at Anonyome Labs, Inc., further expanding his expertise in digital identity solutions.
In the coming months Appli plans to add tools for deposit and savings accounts, lead generation for high-value lending products, and protected payments, Pranger noted. “The things that I am thinking about are how can I make that application a breeze for (the applicant)? So, when they click apply, they do not go to another page, they stay right there,” he said. “We prepopulate the application with all of the details they have already given us, and then they go into application mode and hit submit.”
Without divulging names, Pranger said that Appli has several customers, including credit unions, that the company will announce soon.