The typical image of financial success is overwhelmingly male, and AI is making this bias worse. But the numbers paint a different picture—women are crushing it when it comes to finances. So we set out to change what people see when they search for images of someone who is good with money.
Women’s investment portfolios perform better, they have less credit card debt, and more women today outearn their husbands than ever before. Yet, women are still underrepresented in the image of financial success, leading to a lack of confidence when it comes to money.
Through research, we discovered that less than 2% of AI images generated with financially related prompts feature women. But AI is simply technology that’s mirroring society’s bias against equal representation of women as financial powerhouses.
SoFi launched the Face of Finance campaign to bring attention to AI bias and present a new narrative around women’s financial successes. We created a video revealing the bias and recasting women as the image of wealth and fiscal responsibility. But our video was just the beginning. We enlisted the help of some of social media’s most influential women to help us retrain AI by using their images, so that it could better reflect the truth about women and money.
The campaign included the following touchpoints.
The video - We launched our video on YouTube and amplified it, introducing millions of women to a new narrative around gender and finances.
Launch event - At the NASDAQ building in Times Square, we gathered 35 of the finance world’s most influential women to create awareness around AI bias and start tackling the issue.
Photo Booth - A photo booth empowered women to turn their own portraits into data that presented AI with a different view of women and finances.
Social Media - Working in conjunction with our team of influencers, we took the issue to social media where we created a space for women to speak about the issue and share their money goals and ambitions. We responded across social, cheering on women as they shared their goals, plus surprised some of them with deposits to their SoFi accounts to help them get closer to their goals.
SoFi's multi-pronged Face of Finance campaign and accompanying video resulted in an immense amount of awarness and engagement, ultimately helping SoFi reach their goal - re-educating AI and setting the record straight on women and money. Key campaign results included:
Total Impressions: 81,040,246
Total views: 39,676,311
Total Engagements: 22,237,561
Unaided Awareness: +42%