OneDigital’s AI Experiment: A ‘Cheppy’ for Everyone

Jason Chepenik is getting smarter with age. At least, the artificial intelligence version of him is.

Chepenik’s avatar, called Cheppy, was created by OneDigital last year and rolled out as an experiment at the advisory firm’s annual conference. Like all AI, Cheppy will evolve with use.

Cheppy talks to Jason Chepenik and a colleague at OneDigital’s conference.

“I’m going to get smarter and smarter—the virtual me. And I’ll never eat,” jokes the human Chepenik, a senior vice president of retirement and wealth with OneDigital. “But the real version is the opposite.”

OneDigital, like many in the financial services and benefits space, is experimenting with the possibilities of AI. Last Wednesday, Mercer, a business of Marsh McLennan, released a global trends study finding that “redesigning work to incorporate AI and automation” is among the top five trends for HR leaders in 2024.

At OneDigital’s annual conference in February 2024, attendees were presented with Jason Chepenik on a large screen live via a video link—or so they thought. The Cheppy AI would often respond to them as an avatar, identifying itself as AI. Once attendees realized the setup, they were encouraged to ask questions a plan sponsor or participant might ask, ranging from 401(k) administration to health savings accounts, according to Chepenik.

“We introduced this as a way to show our teams how AI and innovative ideas can apply within the industries that OneDigital is in, be creative, have fun, and we can change the world by doing it,” he says.

Chepenik, who has often used fun to draw people into retirement planning and savings, had the idea of a virtual adviser years ago when he saw holograms being used in real-world examples. But the idea came to life through the recent explosion in AI.  

“You’re not just getting a chatbot to respond, but you’re looking at and seeing what is a real image of a person who’s responding based on the question asked, in my actual voice,” he says. “We all have challenges in our industry with different languages, and we’ve got challenges with on-demand. You can’t just do a webinar or a recorded webcast. With the majority of companies leveraging AI in some way today, this is just one example of how we’re expirementing with technology to determine how we can serve our clients as effectively as possible without comprimising the human element that is so valuable—especially in financial services.”

Still Human

Cheppy at OneDigital’s conference.

OneDigital and Chepenik made it clear they are not going to be rolling out virtual advisers to plan sponsors or participants any day soon. Rather, says Vinay Gidwaney, OneDigital’s chief product officer, the Cheppy experiment is a flashier example of many projects OneDigital is working on to leverage AI.

“We, as a firm, have decided to lean in on AI and build our own tools and experiment with these things and start to drive value with this technology,” he says. “Other areas [beyond Cheppy AI] are more focused on using the technology to super-power our people,” he says.

That may be automating processes such as reviewing and analyzing millions of insurance documents. It may be deploying large language models to help client-facing employees. Another place may be creating first drafts of common forms, such as requests for proposal, that humans will then refine or helping advisers stay up to date on regulations or compliance issues.

“This is not about replacing our client-facing folks,” Gidwaney says. “These are all things that we are working on to amplify the impact our teams can deliver for our clients, and the industry at large.”

Avatars like Cheppy, Gidwaney believes, may be more useful in video trainings that can be personalized or educational videos for employers on 401(k) plans and administration. He does not see avatars as a solution to personalized advice that, in the end, he believes requires an actual human touch.

“We’re in a very complex area, and people need real advice,” he says. “More importantly, they need a person who can help guide them in these financial challenges and life challenges.”

Chep At It

Cheppy—a childhood nickname of Chepenik—is a hopeful sign of what can be done with AI in the retirement realm, notes the human Chepenik. He says participant questions often do start with basics that can be answered in a personalized way with the appropriate inputs. These might be questions about how much to save, whether to convert savings into a Roth account, or how to deal with credit issues.

“There are some basic things that you can give an answer on that is not full investment advice,” Chepenik says.

To create Cheppy, the adviser went into a studio and filmed four 10-minute videos for his image; the voice imprint then came from a 30-minute podcast he had done. He notes that the technology could be used for other plan advisers, or even HR members or executives at a company.

Whatever the use case, it is an area Chepenik says he is going to be thinking about and experimenting with to help improve retirement plans and outcomes for clients, while making them laugh—ideally—along the way.

“There’s lots of ways to do it, and we were able to test it out,” he says. “Half the room thought it was real—they thought it was really me talking. It’s wild.”