Global Finance AI in Finance Awards 2025
The Digital Assistant – cAIxa – on the Caixadirecta app has been recognized by the Global Finance AI in Finance Awards 2025 with two prestigious awards:
“Best Chatbots & Virtual Assistants in Portugal”
“Best Consumer Bank for AI in Portugal”
The Global Finance AI in Finance Awards are organized by the prestigious British publication Global Finance, recognizing leading financial institutions in the application of artificial intelligence (AI) across the banking sector.
The 2025 edition marks the inaugural year for this category, created to recognize Artificial Intelligence as a transformative, ethical, and customer-centric force in the financial industry.
The “Best Chatbots & Virtual Assistants in Portugal” award recognizes Caixa’s AI-driven solutions that enhance customer interactions and streamline banking services.
The “Best Consumer Bank for AI in Portugal” award highlights Caixa’s dedication to leveraging AI technology to deliver exceptional banking experiences to its customers.
The Caixa Digital Assistant offers over 70 available banking operations. As of June 2025, it has completed more than 2 million conversations and boasts over 1.6 million monthly active users, of which 1 million (>63%) are regular users.
These awards recognize banks and fintechs using AI in innovative ways to elevate the customer experience—through chatbots, personalized services, and operational efficiency, automating processes, detecting fraud, analyzing risk, and driving data-based decision-making.
These two awards reflect Caixa's commitment to integrating Generative AI technologies into its services and acknowledge the hard work of Caixa's teams in offering the best experiences and services to our customers.
You can view the full Global Finance report here.
The cAIxa Digital Assistant
The cAIxa Digital Assistant on the Caixadirecta App was primarily developed for external use to elevate the banking experience for Caixa's customers.
Its main objective is to offer a convenient, efficient, and secure way for users to manage their finances via the Caixadirecta App. However, the technology and expertise gained through its development have significantly impacted internal skill sets, enabling Caixa to progressively optimize overall operational efficiency.
The cAIxa Digital Assistant stands out in digital banking due to its unique features designed to enhance service delivery, customer experience, and operational performance. Co-developed with AgentifAI in 2019, it was the first transactional digital assistant in Portugal.
It includes bilingual voice command integration (Portuguese and English), enabling hands-free banking operations. Leveraging advanced AI technologies such as LLMs and NLP, the assistant provides personalized services by learning from user interactions.
Available 24/7, the cAIxa Digital Assistant provides comprehensive account management services, allowing customers to check balances, view transaction history, and execute operations at any time. It ensures high security standards—such as additional verification steps for sensitive transactions—while offering natural conversational capabilities and real-time execution that set it apart from competing digital assistants.
Our cAIxa Digital Assistant enables voice commands and interactions for everyday tasks such as checking balances, transferring money, and paying utility bills—simplifying mobile banking and driving efficiency. It delivers personalized assistance to guarantee a seamless banking experience, even for activating or unlocking contracts, revoking direct debits, or requesting a new card PIN.
The Impact of cAIxa
The cAIxa Digital Assistant on the Caixadirecta App has significantly transformed Caixa both externally and internally:
Externally (in 2024): The cAIxa Digital Assistant handled approximately 6 million conversations, unblocked Caixadirecta service access 1.1 million times, checked balances 359,000 times, executed 133,000 transactions, and managed 33,000 direct debit requests.
Internally: It optimized operational processes by migrating branch customers to the mobile channel via simple, intuitive, and secure onboarding with the digital assistant. This reduced operational costs and freed up sales and customer support teams from routine day-to-day transactions (checking balances, viewing transactions, requesting card PINs, updating personal data), allowing them to focus on complex, high-value business contracts and relationship management.
By June 2025, the assistant reached 2.2 million conversations, over 86,000 transactions, and 21,000 direct debit requests (including revocations, a highly valued capability). It currently serves over 1.6 million monthly active users, with 1 million (>63%) being regular users.
It helps Caixa deepen its understanding of digital customer behavior by providing real-time insights into channel usage, promoting accessibility, and elevating overall customer satisfaction.
The cAIxa Digital Assistant streamlines customer service operations and positions Caixa as a leader in banking innovation, bolstering its market competitiveness. Overall, it has proven to be a digital service with high human value, benefiting both customers and Caixa.
Industry Awards & Recognition
The cAIxa Digital Assistant has been widely recognized for its innovation and technological excellence. Since its launch in 2019, it has received numerous prestigious awards:
Cinco Estrelas Award: Won four consecutive years (up to 2025) in the Virtual Assistant category.
Banking Tech Awards: Winner in the “Best Use of AI – Intelligent Assistant” category, recognized as the Best Digital Assistant globally.
IDC Portugal Digital Awards: Recognition for digital innovation.
iCXA (International Customer Experience Awards): International award for excellence in customer experience.
Global Banking & Finance Awards: International recognition in the financial sector.
PayTech Awards: "Highly Commended" in this international competition.
These awards reflect the impact of the cAIxa Digital Assistant as an innovative, 100% Portuguese solution using artificial intelligence and bilingual natural language processing to make accessing Caixa's banking and financial services seamless for customers.
