LG U+ and Welcome Savings Bank promote non-face-to-face financial innovation with AI financial secretaries

LG U+ and Welcome Savings Bank have launched financial consulting and business support services utilizing generative artificial intelligence, marking the official start of AI-based non-face-to-face financial competition in the banking industry.

On April 24, 2026, LG U+ announced that it had partnered with Welcome Savings Bank to introduce the “AI Financial Secretary” service, the first in the banking industry to incorporate generative AI technology. The service has been applied to Welcome Savings Bank’s mobile app “Welcome Digital Bank.” Its core concept is that customers do not need to navigate complex application menus one by one; they can simply ask questions or make requests as they normally would to handle their financial transactions. This improves accessibility for users unfamiliar with financial applications; from the bank’s perspective, it is a way to enhance consulting and guidance efficiency.

This service integrates LG AI Research Institute’s large language model “Exaone,” financial data held by Welcome Savings Bank, and LG U+’s capabilities in building and operating AI agents. Large language models are technologies capable of understanding human sentences and generating responses. Recently, the financial industry has been expanding their application from simple chatbots to actual business processing, product introductions, and customer-specific responses. The banking industry has previously been considered to be slightly slower in digital transformation compared to commercial banks, but this case demonstrates that small and medium-sized financial institutions are also advancing service upgrades driven by generative AI.

The collaboration between telecom companies and financial firms is also noteworthy. Telecom companies possess AI platforms and customer response technologies, while financial companies hold actual transaction data and service on-site. Both sides find it easier to combine their respective strengths. Especially in finance, accuracy, security, and compliance are critical; simply introducing technology alone makes commercializing services difficult. From this perspective, this release can be seen as an important scenario where generative AI moves beyond experimental stages and is implemented in real financial services.

On the same day, the trend of expanding customer touchpoints in the ICT industry continued. KT held the official creator partnership program “KT Onzigi Phase 2 Partner Day” at the Fairm Hall in Seoul’s Jung District, sharing the event direction with 100 Phase 2 creators. Samsung Electronics decided to hold the “Galaxy S26 Family Festa” by May 10, offering a 50k won Galaxy Store coupon to buyers, and operated a pop-up store for the game “Honkai: Star Rail” at Samsung Store Hongdae before May 5. This indicates that telecom and electronics industries are not only competing through technology but also strengthening consumer engagement by extending platform dwell time and enriching brand experiences. This trend is very likely to promote closer integration of finance, communication, and terminal services through AI as a medium in the future.