Page 621 - AI for Good Innovate for Impact

AI for Good Innovate for Impact

2 Use Case Description

2�1 Description

There are 165M Americans who carry credit card debt for over a year, and 81M of them live 4.6: Finance
near or below the poverty line. Consumer debt is the main catalyst keeping people in poverty.
Moreover, regardless of how people get into poverty, what keeps people in poverty in each
country is equally important. There is no current tool to help people manage and improve their
spending patterns, leading to their current poverty situation [6].

SERA aims to eliminate credit card debt faster without any loans or extra payments while
helping to manage/improve people’s spending habits for future stability. Currently created
for North and South America, it can be localized to any country that can use banking products
like checking, savings accounts, credit/debit cards, etc. [7].

[Describe the innovative technological approach being implemented.] SERA uses the Offset
Principle, a powerful yet little-known financial concept in its core product, Debt Offset to help
reduce CC debt faster than any current debt service products today. Moreover, SERA also
addresses the root cause of debt by managing and improving people’s spending patterns
through the use of AI to enforce a balanced budget.

[Explain the expected impact and benefits of the solution.] With the current debt service model,
there are only 2 legitimate ways to pay down your debt faster. One is to pay more than the
monthly minimum (which requires more disposable income) and two is to lower the interest
rate of your debt (which requires good credit). For the first time, working people can reduce
their CC debt faster without the need for more disposable income nor good credit score. In
particular, this new solution will benefit those who have low income and poor credit the most,
as they have no other viable debt solution today (81M Americans alone). Once CC debt is
paid off, the funds from previous CC payments can be used toward reducing any other deb,t
such as Student Loan, Consumer Loan, Car Loan, etc. Moreover, the SERA work in helping
people improve their spending patterns can also be used by any working adult to improve their
finances (with or without credit card debt) to gradually build their financial stability (worldwide
impact as any working adult anywhere can manage and improve their economic status with
our Smart Budget tool) [4][5].

2�2 Benefits of the use case

• No Poverty. SERA helps lift people out of poverty by first helping them to escape their CC
debt faster without extra payments nor good credit (currently not possible). Their biggest
problem is debt, especially CC debt as it’s easier to get and CC is needed for their daily
spending [5]. More importantly, SERA will then help them manage and improve their
finances so that they can stay out of debt to gradually build their financial stability. Note
that “improving” finances might be in the form of boosting their current income with
localized opportunities that they might not be aware of. For example, a US citizen is short
of $150 for rent within a few days, what can he do? Our Income Boosting feature can
recommend a committed gig (driving Uber or Doordash), or an uncommitted gig such as
selling items on eBay, donating plasma or doing a secret shopper. If they are consistently
short of funds, they might want to adopt a more permanent income boosting method
recommended by SERA.
• Economic Growth. Low-income people do not have a pathway to increase their economic
level due to debt and a lack of tools to improve their current financial situation. Many
people remain within their paycheck-to-paycheck mode (and borrowing in between)

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