How Credit Karma is blending traditional AI with embedded GenAI to create more impactful user experiences
- With Intuit’s infrastructure behind it, Credit Karma is turning up the dial on GenAI.
- In this exclusive, Maddie Daianu, Head of Data and AI at Credit Karma, shares what that looks like behind the scenes.
Intuit has been quietly building a fintech empire in plain sight, mostly by buying its way in. When Intuit acquired Credit Karma for $7.1 billion in 2020, it didn’t just enter the consumer finance space — it tapped into a massive user network and secured ongoing user engagement through tools like credit monitoring, loan offers, and tax prep via TurboTax.
In this exclusive, I speak with Maddie Daianu, Head of Data and AI at Credit Karma, about how the company is leveraging Intuit’s infrastructure to explore generative AI (GenAI), how she’s steering its data and AI strategy, and where traditional AI and GenAI come together to elevate the user experience.
What it takes to build AI-backed user experiences
Maddie Daianu heads Data and AI at Intuit Credit Karma, where she steers her team toward a broader goal: creating a full-spectrum experience for members beyond just personalized touchpoints.
“We’re building end-to-end data and AI infrastructure that scales meaningful AI-driven experiences to our 140+ million members, and transforms technology into tangible business results,” says Daianu.
She notes the firm has prioritized AI from the very start, investing heavily in the platform and sophisticated machine learning models that personalize recommendations for users across their app, emails, and push notifications.
“By automating the AI lifecycle, we deploy over 22,000 models monthly, generating 60 billion daily predictions. We’ve built a data-driven culture into Credit Karma’s DNA from day one, empowering teams to experiment, learn, and innovate through our integrated platform,” she notes.
Credit Karma’s Data and AI team structure:
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