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Published February 10, 2025 in stories

Building an AI-Powered Financial Wellness: Step by Step Guide

Building an AI-Powered Financial Wellness: Step by Step Guide
Author: Stephane, Bhavya, Sadath, Pankaj, Sweta at Lovable

Introduction

Lovable AI is redefining how software is built by seamlessly integrating artificial intelligence into the development process. As ML Software Engineers, the idea of having a tool that builds software autonomously has always been compelling. Lovable AI brings this concept to life, accelerating development, automating repetitive tasks, and simplifying complex integrations.

For many developers, backend configuration, API management, and UI design require significant effort and technical expertise. Lovable AI eliminates these barriers, making the entire process intuitive and highly efficient. By leveraging AI-powered automation, it allows teams to focus on problem-solving and innovation rather than getting stuck in tedious coding tasks.

TL;DR

  • Built an AI-powered financial wellness platform with real-time financial tracking, budgeting insights, and personalized investment recommendations.
  • Used Supabase for authentication, database management, and API integration to store user financial data and automate backend processes.
  • Developed an AI-driven Risk-Based Investment Recommender, which analyzes income, expenses, and job stability to suggest personalized investment options using scraped financial data.
  • Created an interactive UI with Lovable’s AI-powered builder, featuring dynamic dashboards, spending trends, and visual financial insights.
  • Implemented one-click deployment and seamless GitHub integration for easy collaboration, version control, and public hosting.
  • Next steps: AI-powered chatbot, enhanced user interaction for savings and goals, and a refined recommender system for even smarter financial advice!

Why Lovable AI Stands Out

Seamless Integrations That Just Work

One of the biggest headaches in development is setting up databases, authentication, and version control. Lovable made that effortless with its Supabase and GitHub integrations.

  • Supabase: We got authentication, secrets management, and edge functions set up in minutes—no manual backend configuration needed.
  • GitHub: Pushing code, managing updates, and collaborating in real-time was smooth. It felt like we had an AI-powered DevOps team managing version control for us.

UI Building at Lightning Speed

Creating a clean, responsive UI usually takes time, but with Lovable, we just described what we wanted in plain English, and boom—it generated the layout instantly.

  • Supports images, videos, and custom styling, making the UI feel polished without needing a designer.
  • The mobile/web adaptive design meant we didn’t have to worry about responsiveness—Lovable took care of it automatically.
  • Our hackathon project UI stood out, and the best part? We built it in record time.

API Integrations Without the Hassle

Connecting third-party APIs is usually a pain—endpoints, auth, and debugging take forever. Lovable simplified everything by handling the backend logic for API calls.

  • We pulled financial data, managed authentication, and structured API responses effortlessly.
  • No deep backend knowledge required—Lovable did the heavy lifting while we focused on features.

One-Click Deployment? Yes, Please!

Deployment is usually where things slow down, but not with Lovable.

  • With one-click deployment, our app was live in seconds—no server setup, no cloud headaches.
  • Lovable automatically optimized everything for different devices and screen sizes.

Lovable vs. Traditional Development & No-Code Platforms

Lovable AI’s unique approach combines AI-powered automation with seamless integrations, making it stand out from both traditional development and no-code platforms like Bubble and Webflow.

How Does Lovable Compare?

Feature Lovable AI Traditional Development No-Code Platforms (Bubble/Webflow)
Development Speed AI-powered instant builds Slow, manual coding Fast, but requires UI setup
Customization AI-assisted UI and backend edits Fully customizable but time-consuming Drag-and-drop with limited flexibility
Backend Support Built-in Supabase integration Manual database setup Limited backend features
AI-Powered Features Generates ML models and API logic Requires manual AI integration Limited AI capabilities
Collaboration & Version Control Seamless GitHub integration Manual setup required Limited version control
Deployment One-click deployment Requires DevOps expertise Platform-dependent hosting

Compared to traditional development, Lovable AI significantly reduces development time while maintaining customization flexibility. Unlike other no-code platforms, it extends beyond UI-building by incorporating backend logic and AI-powered automation, making it a complete development solution.

Step-by-Step Development Timeline for the AI-Powered Financial Wellness Platform

Using Lovable AI, we developed an AI-powered financial wellness platform that helps users track expenses, analyze spending patterns, and receive personalized investment recommendations.

1. Landing Page & User Onboarding

The first step was designing an intuitive landing page that introduces users to AI-driven financial analysis. With Lovable AI, we generated a professional and user-friendly UI within minutes using natural language descriptions.

2. Financial Dashboard

The core of the platform is a real-time financial summary dashboard, which provides users with a clear overview of their income, spending, and savings. Integration with Supabase allowed seamless data storage, while Lovable’s AI-powered analytics enabled predictive spending insights.

3. Budget & Expense Tracking

To enhance financial literacy, the platform includes AI-driven budgeting insights. Lovable’s machine learning capabilities help users:

  • Identify spending trends and areas for cost-saving.
  • Generate personalized budgeting strategies based on transaction history.
  • Understand AI recommendations through transparent explanations of its analysis.

AI-based Budget Insights

4. Investment & Savings Recommendations

An AI-powered risk assessment model classifies users into low, medium, or high-risk categories based on age, income, and spending habits. It then:

  • Matches users with suitable investment products by scraping financial data.
  • Provides growth projections and risk-adjusted returns tailored to individual financial goals.

AI-based recommender for Risk-profiling

5. Financial Literacy & Education (Upcoming Feature)

The final phase of development includes adding educational content, explainer videos, and interactive quizzes to help users make informed investment decisions.

Personalized Financial Product Recommendations

Key Integrations Used

  • Supabase: Authentication & database management
  • AI Recommender System: Smart investment suggestions
  • Web Scraping: Live financial data from Sun Life Financial
  • Real-time API calls for personalized analytics

Future Enhancements

  • AI-powered chatbot for financial guidance
  • More refined recommendation engine
  • Secure bank account linking

Technical Deep Dive: The "Cheesy" Details

AI-Driven Budget Insights

  • Instead of just tracking expenses, we built an AI model that actually analyzes user transactions and suggests smarter budgeting strategies.
  • Transparency matters—users can hover over AI-generated insights to see why the AI made a particular recommendation, making the system more trustworthy and explainable.

Risk-Based Investment Recommender

  • Instead of generic recommendations, our AI analyzes a user’s income, spending behavior, job stability, and age to assign them a risk tolerance level (Low, Medium, High).
  • Based on this risk assessment, we match them with the best investment products, pulling real-time financial data from Sun Life Financial.

Web Scraping + AI Personalization

  • Scraping financial product data can get messy, but Lovable handled API integration seamlessly, making it easy to structure the data into meaningful investment recommendations.
  • Our AI automatically matches scraped investment products to a user’s risk profile, ensuring personalized, data-driven financial advice.

Dynamic UI Built from Plain Language

  • We didn’t manually drag-and-drop UI elements—instead, we described what we needed, and Lovable generated the entire UI for us.
  • No pixel tweaking required—Lovable handled responsiveness, layouts, and logic automatically, making the process insanely fast and efficient.

Advice for New Lovable Users

Start Simple, Then Iterate

When starting with Lovable AI, don’t overcomplicate your prompts. Begin with a basic request like:

"Create a financial dashboard with user accounts, balances, and spending categories."

Once you have a solid foundation, iteratively refine and expand by adding more features, styling, and integrations. Lovable works best when you build step by step, rather than trying to generate everything at once.

Use Supabase for Backend Power

One of Lovable’s biggest strengths is its smooth integration with Supabase, which provides authentication, database storage, and API management without any extra hassle.

Tip: Enable authentication early on, so Lovable can auto-generate login and user management logic for you. This saves tons of time and ensures a structured backend right from the start.

Sync with GitHub for Code Flexibility

While Lovable auto-generates functional code, there will be times when you want manual tweaks or collaboration with a team. That’s where GitHub integration becomes invaluable.

Tip: Sync your project to GitHub as soon as possible. This allows you to refine the AI-generated code, manage version control, and collaborate with others seamlessly. Plus, if you ever need to roll back changes, GitHub has your back.

Leverage AI Debugging & Auto-Fixes

Let’s face it—bugs happen. But the good news? Lovable AI has built-in debugging intelligence to detect issues and suggest fixes on the spot.

Tip: If you run into issues, don’t manually dig through the code—instead, just ask Lovable for help! Try prompts like:

"Fix my authentication logic."

"Refactor the code for better performance."

Lovable will analyze your code, pinpoint errors, and offer corrections automatically, saving you countless hours of debugging.

Final Thoughts

By automating the repetitive and complex parts of development, Lovable lets us focus on innovation, creativity, and solving real problems—instead of getting lost in setup, debugging, and infrastructure headaches.

As AI-driven development keeps evolving, Lovable is leading the charge toward a future where building intelligent software is accessible to everyone. And honestly? We’re just getting started.

Team Hackathon in Canada