Stake Harnessing AI to Continue Breaking Barriers for Aussie Investors

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – June 26, 2025 – Stake, Australia's leading digital investment platform, confirmed the acceleration of its artificial intelligence adoption across its operations, alongside the launch of Stake Compass, an AI-powered conversational assistant and information search feature.

This move underscores Stake's commitment to embracing cutting-edge technology to continuously break barriers for Australian and New Zealand investors.

Phase 1: Building an AI-ready culture

Stake's journey into Generative AI began in 2023 with a foundation focused on internal education, understanding and responsible implementation.

"Generative AI is a transformative technology making huge waves across the globe. At Stake, it’s more than just riding that wave," said Andrew Vassili, Stake’s Head of AI. "It’s about harnessing this technology, developing a thorough understanding of its strengths and weaknesses, and using it in a way that not just improves investor experiences but safeguards them too.”

Stake's efforts have included internal education as well as the establishment of four internal AI pillars aligned with the Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR) Australia’s AI Ethics Principles:

• Protect: establishing robust safeguards, structures, and processes to proactively prevent harm and ensure data security.

• Pre-empt: adopting a risk-first approach to create transparent and efficient AI procedures and organisational structures.

• Test: developing comprehensive testing environments to validate, refine, and ensure the reliability of AI solutions.

• Assess: regularly evaluating AI systems and testing facilities to ensure ongoing effectiveness, fairness, and to identify areas for continuous improvement and evolution.

The strategic emphasis on AI integration comes as global trends indicate a shift in information consumption, with a reported increase in the usage of Large Language Models (LLMs) such as Gemini and ChatGPT impacting traditional search engine usage.

“This is serious technology that our customers are already using in their day-to-day lives. It wasn't enough for us to simply participate in the conversation; instead, we saw a responsibility to help lead it by engineering solutions that set a standard for both innovation and safety”, added Vassili.

Phase 2: Integrating AI-powered customer solutions

The first culmination of Stake's internal AI program is Stake Compass, a new tool designed to improve the ability to access trusted information about SMSFs and the Stake Super offering.

Built upon the success of their seamless SMSF admin platform, Stake Compass directly addresses customers' needs by providing clearer, more accessible information through a direct conversational interface.

“We constantly hear from our customers that navigating SMSF information is a challenge. It's an inherently complex space, and they're looking for solutions," stated Ciara Conway, General Manager of Stake Super. Stake Compass underwent 12 months of meticulous development, trained extensively on Stake’s own content database to ensure all responses are grounded in truth. Crucially, guardrails and guidelines were built based on ASIC regulations, specifically pertaining to financial advice.

When customers pose a query, Stake Compass taps into these verified sources, providing relevant information and transparently citing its origins. Stake Compass was purpose-built to be integrated into the Stake Super onboarding journey, enabling prospective customers to more efficiently and confidently find answers to their SMSF setup questions.

The future of AI at Stake

Looking ahead, Stake remains committed to continuous innovation and will further expand its AI capabilities to serve the evolving needs of its growing customer base.

“The launch of Stake Compass is just the beginning of how we will build AI products to empower our customers,” said Andrew Vassili. “We will continue to strategically leverage AI across our platform, investing in both our technology and our talent. Our dedicated AI team will grow in size and expertise, ensuring we remain at the forefront of delivering safe, intelligent, and truly valuable solutions that help Australians achieve their financial ambitions.”

-ENDS-

About Stake Stake is an investment platform that breaks barriers between ambition and financial progress. It was founded in Australia in 2017 and has since grown to over $5 billion in assets under administration by providing seamless access to the U.S. markets, CHESS-sponsored ASX trades, Stake Accumulate a managed fund and Stake Super – an intuitive, hassle-free SMSF admin service and investing platform.

Stakeshop Pty Ltd (Stake, us, our) is an Authorised Representative (Authorised Representative No. 1241398) of Stakeshop AFSL Pty Ltd which holds Australian Financial Services Licence number 548196. Stake SMSF Pty Ltd ACN 648 283 532 (‘Stake Super’) is not licensed to provide financial product advice under the Corporations Act. This specifically applies to any financial products which are established if you instruct Stake Super to set up a self managed super fund (‘SMSF’). When you sign up to Stake Super, you are contracting with Stake SMSF Pty Ltd who will assist in the establishment of a SMSF under a ‘no advice model’.