Candidly Introduces Cait: Multi-Agent AI Assistant Delivers Comprehensive Financial Guidance for Student Debt and College Planning

Candidly, the market's leading AI-driven student debt and savings optimization platform, today announced the launch of Cait^TM (Conversational AI Tool), a sophisticated multi-agent AI assistant that delivers comprehensive financial guidance spanning student loan repayment and college planning. Unlike single-purpose chatbots, Cait's advanced multi-agent architecture enables deep expertise across the full education financing lifecycle. Cait will be initially available to employees through their employers at a critical time when borrowers face the resumption of involuntary collections on federal student loans.

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Addressing Critical Need as Collections Resume

The launch comes at a time when 43 million Americans must re-engage in their repayment journey across $1.8 trillion in total outstanding federal student loan debt. For those unable to find their footing, involuntary collections have resumed, including wage garnishment, tax refund offsets, and Social Security benefit garnishments. Simultaneously, families face unprecedented college affordability challenges, with 88% of families reporting they don't have enough saved for college and average tuition costs continuing to outpace inflation.

"One in two American families is struggling with their education financing journey, either trying to figure out how to send their kids to college, grappling with student debt, or both. With 31% of borrowers in delinquency or default, including prime and super prime users, the current system is clearly failing," said Laurel Taylor, Founder and CEO of Candidly. "We're at a pivotal moment where AI can help deliver what families have always deserved: empathetic, precise, and real-time guidance that is personalized. With Cait, we're not just fixing a broken system; we're reimagining how every American household navigates and takes control of their financial future. College planning, student debt, and retirement aren't separate challenges but rather they're one interconnected journey, and Cait transforms that journey from overwhelming complexity into a clear path that goes beyond debt into wellness and ultimately wealth.”

Transforming Financial Guidance Through Multi-Agentic AI

Cait's sophisticated multi-agent system architecture goes far beyond simple Q&A chatbots, with specialized agents that deliver deep expertise across distinct but interconnected financial domains:

• Student Debt Optimization to Support Repayment Strategies and Maximize Savings: Analyzing dynamic income-driven repayment options, public service loan forgiveness programs achievable after 120 qualifying payments, consolidation opportunities, and tax-free employer-sponsored benefits
• College Planning & Savings to Help Families Make Informed Decisions and Reduce the Need for Debt: Providing strategic guidance on 529 education savings plans, tax-advantaged investment strategies, scholarship optimization, and education financing decisions as federal education financing options have undergone significant changes in connection with the One Big Beautiful Act
• SECURE 2.0 Retirement to Crush Debt and Build Wealth Simultaneously: Operationalizing Student Loan Retirement Match programs, enabling borrowers to simultaneously build retirement wealth while paying down student debt

"Our multi-agentic architecture allows each specialized agent to leverage deep domain expertise while working together to provide holistic guidance," explained Ben Levine, Chief Product Officer at Candidly. "This isn't just answering questions about student loans – it's comprehensive financial guidance that considers the interconnected nature of education financing, debt management, and wealth building."

Proven Results Through Innovative Testing

Candidly has conducted extensive testing of Cait using an innovative approach in which a simulated user testing environment was created to replicate real-world behaviors at scale with user profiles that mirror the distributions found in the real world. This allows for testing of agentic systems with many simultaneous, varied "users," surfacing rare or edge-case behaviors that a development or testing team might not catch. Over two million simulated user tests demonstrate Cait's effectiveness in helping borrowers make optimal financial decisions:

• Simulated users are 68% more likely to find a repayment plan that saves them money
• The average savings over the life of the loan for simulated users is $32,800
• Simulated users consistently choose plans that provide better long-term financial outcomes when guided by Cait

First Step in Broader AI Product Rollout

Cait's launch represents the first external deployment of Candidly's sophisticated multi-agent architecture, which is designed to scale across the full spectrum of financial guidance needs. Initially focused on student debt and college planning for employees through their employers, Cait is built for horizontal extensibility across broader financial guidance ecosystems and applications.

To learn more about Cait and Candidly's platform, visit getcandidly.com/cait.

About Candidly

Candidly is an AI-driven student debt and savings optimization platform that addresses the full lifecycle of education expenses and empowers people to make simultaneous progress on paying down student debt and building wealth. Candidly partners with leading employers and financial services companies serving the workplace like 401(k) and 403(b) recordkeepers, retirement plan advisors, and more, creating a holistic and inclusive workplace benefit and embedded finance solution.

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Cait comes at a time when 43 million Americans must re-engage in their repayment journey across $1.8 trillion in total outstanding federal student loan debt.