“If a screen reader can’t find the pay button, I can’t send money,” says Sassy Wyatt, who has been completey blind since 2013 and relies on a screen reader to navigate her digital life. “I know the button is there, but I’m locked out of it,” she adds, recounting what it is like to use her banking app. “That’s not a tech bug – that’s exclusion”.
Sassy – a member of our Real Folk Panel of experienced communications consultants with lived experience – isn’t alone. Too often, financial services firms’ digital products are designed for an imagined “average user”, even though such a thing doesn’t exist in real life. Most people don’t fit in one box; people are more complex and diverse than most brands acknowledge. This means firms miss people who navigate differently, communicate differently or think differently.
Enabling all of your customers to use your services
But imagine if all customers could have real choice in how they engage with their finances. Say someone with a speech impairment was offered text as a default option. Or a dyslexic customer could automatically receive more visual formats with fewer words. Or a customer who speaks English as a second language could always instantly access clear, simplified translations that reduce misunderstandings.
In this regard, AI, used well, could be transformative. It could mark a genuine turning point for under-represented and vulnerable people in financial services. It could be used to personalise communication, in the right format, language and channel.
We explore this in more detail in our report Leave no one behind. It sets out the huge opportunity for using AI to help all customers, including a practical framework that organisations can apply.
This is more urgent than ever, particularly given the FCA has found around 49% of UK adults display one or more characteristics of vulnerability. As the Government recognised in its November 2025 Financial Inclusion Strategy, when people are financially excluded, it limits their participation in society more broadly.
Nothing about us, without us
Our report is built upon insights from real people from our Real Folk Panel, representing a wide diversity of experiences, perspectives and needs. We hear directly about their experiences accessing financial services. These real-life insights will help you to start to understand where AI can genuinely help, and where it risks repeating old patterns, or even causing harm.
If you don’t include real people with diverse needs at every stage, then you’re designing in the dark. Or as Sassy puts it, “nothing about us, without us.”
Download our report to read more of our real life insights to help understand where AI can genuinely help, and where it risks repeating old patterns, or even causing harm.