How TIAA Is Using AI to Personalize the Future of Retirement

AI could bring retirement planning closer to what it should be: personal, flexible, and built around each person’s goals.

In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Jessica Austin Barker, Chief Digital Officer and Client Experience Officer at TIAA, shares how AI could make retirement planning easier to navigate and more relevant to each individual.

Today, people change jobs, take career breaks, and follow less traditional paths to retirement. Their goals are just as varied. AI creates an opportunity to provide guidance that reflects each person’s circumstances and adapts as their needs change.

It could also make planning feel less overwhelming. Traditional tools often require people to gather and enter large amounts of information before exploring their options. AI could reduce that effort, model personalized scenarios, and make complex financial information easier to understand.

Jessica also shares her perspective on the potential for AI companions that remember context, understand intent, and provide relevant support throughout customer relationships that can span decades. For TIAA, realizing that vision starts with strong governance, appropriate safeguards, and human oversight.

Key Highlights From Our Conversation

• More personalized guidance for individual retirement goals
• Flexible support for changing retirement journeys
• Simpler ways to explore and compare financial scenarios
• Responsible adoption of customer-facing agentic AI

Listen to the full episode to discover how AI could create a more personal, accessible, and human-centered retirement experience.

Visit the TIAA website to learn more about its approach to retirement planning and lifetime income.

🎧 Listen to the full episode of The Modern Customer Podcast. Stream now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.