THE DETAIL
How It Works
Built for affordability.
Shaped by real-world conversations.
Traditional approaches to understanding income and expenditure — whether through spreadsheets, paper forms or lengthy calls — can be time-consuming and often create anxiety or feelings of judgement.
Inicio developed an alternative.
Over many years of in-depth research and real-world conversations about financial circumstances, the result is an assessment that customers actually complete, that agents no longer dread, and that gives organisations the quality data they need to act.
At the centre of the experience is Budgie, a conversational avatar that guides users through an AI affordability assessment. Using conversational AI, Budgie understands not just what to ask, but how to ask it — recognising the signs that someone needs a different approach, identifying potential vulnerability, and maintaining a consistent and supportive approach, whoever the customer is.
What Makes Budgie Different
Budgie is a conversational AI avatar and the only FCA regulated AI solution designed exclusively for affordability assessments.
Purpose-built for this role, it guides income and expenditure conversations in a structured and controlled way, ensuring every interaction remains focused and compliant.
Configured to each client’s operating model, Budgie reflects their tone and approach, delivering a consistent experience across all interactions without the need for repeated retraining.
Continuously developed by Inicio’s specialist team, Budgie is always evolving to better understand language, context and behaviour over time — ensuring the platform remains relevant, reliable, consistent and aligned to organisational and regulatory requirements.
Flexible by Design
The Inicio solution is designed to fit seamlessly into existing customer journeys, with flexible deployment options to suit different operational models.
Our solution can be fully integrated into client systems via API’s, enabling affordability assessments to sit naturally within digital journeys, agent workflows, or broker and dealer processes.
Alternatively, Inicio can be deployed as a standalone solution, allowing organisations to quickly introduce structured affordability assessments without the need for complex integration.
How it’s used in practice
The Inicio solution fits wherever the conversation happens — and can flex as it evolves. A customer who starts digitally can seamlessly move to agent support within the same assessment, without losing any progress:
- Digital journeys
Embedded within websites or customer portals, enabling self-service affordability assessments at a time that suits the customer - Agent or advisor-led interactions
Used by teams to guide structured affordability conversations, ensuring consistency and reducing manual effort - Hybrid journeys
Where customers can begin independently and receive support where needed, all within the same assessment
Consistent across every channel
However the Inicio solution is deployed, every interaction follows the same assessment journey. That means consistent data, a seamless experience for customers and agents, and a clear auditable record — every time.
Because Inicio is FCA regulated, a completed assessment can also be securely passported to other businesses with consumer consent — meaning customers never have to repeat themselves across multiple providers.
This ensures:
- consistency in how information is captured
- a seamless experience for customers and teams
- a clear and auditable record of affordability
Getting Started Couldn’t be Easier
“There is a clear and considered implementation plan, guided by SMEs with an in-depth understanding of the tool. The team created an open and honest partnership that helped us become comfortable as quickly as possible — and the Ops team are excited and super comfortable with go-live, which is an amazing achievement.”
Rob, Delivery Lead — Hastings Direct
“I can’t emphasise enough what a great experience it’s been. The agility of implementation and ongoing support is unsurpassed — and how well the tool is working for our operation and our customers makes me feel we’re at the start of a very exciting journey.”
Heather Pollard, Director of Business Optimisation — Perch Group
