Candidly estimates its AI tools will reach almost half of 401(k) workers

Candidly estimates its AI-embedded participant tools will soon reach almost half of American workers with a workplace 401(k), through partnerships with plan sponsors, asset managers and recordkeepers, 401(k) Specialist reported Oct. 29.

The tools pull in a plan sponsor's payroll, benefits and HR information and place plan-specific guidance into a participant portal for new and existing employees. Enrollment at those plans becomes a largely self-serve process, with advisers often positioned as an ancillary tool.

For plan advisers, the enrollment conversation now happens in a portal fed by the sponsor's payroll and HR data. The report advises them to become a critical complement to those systems rather than a competing first call. Sponsors weighing a platform also decide what participant payroll and benefits data to hand over, since that integration is what makes the guidance plan-specific.

Candidly's debt tool already rides on four recordkeeper pipelines, Private Wealth Daily previously reported. The company started a decade ago with student-loan technology and has expanded to 10 AI-embedded agents for other participant needs, according to 401(k) Specialist.

What a plan committee installs is a participant-facing layer on top of data it already holds, with vendor relationships running through the recordkeeper or asset manager for most plans. The committee can test whether the guidance the portal produces matches the plan's own provisions and how the adviser on the account fits once enrollment stops being a meeting. The report describes a gap between systems that now handle first-time enrollment and the human guidance participants still need on decisions the portal does not carry. Whether that gap closes is the question for the next platform review.