Nubank bets on AI to bring a financial advisor to everyone

Nu, Latin America's leading digital bank, detailed its AI strategy on June 11, 2026, during the Nu Videocast, featuring chief technology officer Eric Young and AI Core general manager Rohan Ramanath, the company said on its own corporate site. At the center of the strategy is nuFormer, Nu's proprietary, self-supervised foundational model, and the AI Private Banker, a set of features the fintech describes as an entirely new financial-advisory experience rather than just another in-app feature.

According to Finsiders Brasil, nuFormer is the AI model behind Nubank's credit-limit-increase program in Brazil: the technology helps decide which customers can receive a higher limit and how much. Its precision lets Nu safely extend credit to customers who would have been excluded by less granular models, boosting financial inclusion and revenue growth at the same time. The model is already applied to Nu's largest credit segment in Brazil and is expanding into personal loans, as well as into Mexico and Colombia.

From pilot to 15 million users a month

Named «AI Private Banker», the system is being built to understand each customer's financial situation, organize income and expense data, and suggest decisions on credit, investments and debt management — a kind of advice historically reserved for high-income clients. The initiative aims to close an economic gap: the value of a better financial decision is greater for low- and middle-income families, a population that has historically had limited access to this kind of personalized guidance. Some features have already been in testing for at least six months and are used by more than 15 million monthly active users; a consolidated version of the product is expected soon.

Better models don't just reduce losses. They let us extend credit safely and responsibly to more people. That's inclusion and profitability together.

Data, talent and culture: a decade in the making

Nu's AI strategy rests on three advantages built over more than a decade. The first is data: a base of 135 million customers, with an 83% activity rate and high primary-account concentration, gives the company a complete, aggregated view of financial behavior. The second is talent: the 2024 acquisition of Hyperplane brought in AI researchers from Google, Meta, Apple and Microsoft, on top of recognitions such as LinkedIn's 2026 Top Companies list in Brazil. The third is culture: every employee has access to AI tools, with usage and impact measured across every function — one backend architecture project, for instance, was sped up by nearly a year through AI-assisted development.

• 135 million customers, with an 83% activity rate
• More than 15 million monthly users already use AI Private Banker features
• Average revenue per active customer: about $16, versus about $40 at traditional banks
• The 2024 Hyperplane acquisition brought AI researchers from Google, Meta, Apple and Microsoft

Per Finsiders Brasil, executives say AI is becoming a strategic layer across Nubank's entire operating model, from software engineering and fraud prevention to credit decisions and product development. Nu's average revenue per active customer was about $16 in the first quarter of 2026, versus roughly $40 at traditional banks — a gap that AI-driven personalization, cross-selling and the automated personal financial advisor are meant to close. A Morgan Stanley research report described Nu applying to AI the same playbook that launched the digital-banking era: move early, build with conviction, and use technology to reshape costs and experience.

We'd rather set the new standards than wait and react. That challenger mindset — reinventing the status quo, removing complexity — is exactly what this moment demands.

For a US fintech competing with Nubank for retail-banking customers — from traditional banks to smaller challengers —, the message is blunt: differentiation through human service loses weight when a rival already delivers, for free and at scale, an advisory layer used by 15 million people every month, one it is already extending into Mexico and Colombia through nuFormer. Companies relying on outside credit partners or third-party scoring will need to assess whether their own models can match the granularity nuFormer already applies to millions of accounts across three countries — deciding where to invest in proprietary AI has stopped being a medium-term option and become an immediate competitive necessity.