How Rhea AI by Accern Redefined Financial Research
the project
Redefining Financial Research Through AI-First Product Design
Accern, the leading NLP company in the U.S. and a Forbes Under 30 honoree, partnered with us in 2022—when AI was just gaining momentum. While building their products, we created design patterns that set the standard and are now used by Anthropic, ChatAI, and other major AI players.
In 2024, Accern returned to collaborate on a new product within their growing digital ecosystem. This time, the focus was a powerful research tool built for financial analysts, VC investors, and ESG specialists—driven by a pre-trained AI model that goes far beyond traditional chatbot functionality.
This case study is a must-read for AI business owners, fintech startups, and enterprise SaaS teams working with large data sets and complex research workflows. It showcases our development of AI functionality that set a new market standard—now adopted by OpenAI and other AI leaders.
From  series B to Acquisition
Rhea became the catalyst that propelled Accern from Series B to an eight-figure acquisition—marking a major leap in both product and company growth.
moving the client from series B to acquisition
the client raised during our years-long partnership
The Project’s
Discovery Phase
Rhea’s functionality
At the heart of Rhea's capabilities is a prompt-based functionality enhanced by shortcuts, autocomplete, and widgets. To add transparency, we strategically placed references alongside the AI's responses, guiding users to the sources of the pulled data.
The platform is designed to seamlessly handle automated emailing, schedule calls, issue alerts, and perform various other actions integral to the day-to-day workflow of a financial researcher.
Creating an adaptive communication system
We engineered an adaptive natural language communication system. When users struggle to express their questions, Rhea steps to refine and amplify communication.
It leverages techniques such as clarification, suggestions, hints, and prompt components, breaking down the barriers of articulation to effectively guide and assist users.
Power of Digital Product Design for Series A Funding
Introducing the split screen creator mode
After closely observing how financial researchers go about their tasks, we devised the split screen creator mode in Rhea's interface to enhance usability. This innovative feature allows users to seamlessly populate a research report while continuing their research, eliminating the need to switch between tabs or manage multiple windows.
Designing the multi-purpose input field
Rhea goes beyond natural language understanding, covering user comprehension, personalization, file management, and task assistance. This comprehensive suite is supported by robust data processing and synthesis on the backend.
At Lazarev, we committed to actualizing this functionality by transforming the chat field into an advanced search bar and a command line.
Designing a hybrid GUI & prompt-based interface
Given the complexity of Rhea's functionality, we purposefully crafted a hybrid GUI/prompt-based interface.
The interface is dynamic, with buttons and widgets adapting to the context of the conversation. For instance, Rhea can showcase references, charts, footnotes, graphical controls, and quick action buttons.
Linking datasets & managing files
Within the settings, financial researchers can choose from pre-configured data sets known as Lenses or link their own datasets through Accern's NLP Platform. We provided them with the option to upload and manage files and folders, offering essential context for Rhea's data analysis.
Moreover, we crafted custom email notifications to send alerts and reports on designated topics, keywords, industries, or any other information that researchers consider valuable.
More AIÂ Cases
Frequently Asked
Questions
How to optimize the collection and analysis of data for financial researchers?
One effective way to streamline research is by combining AI-driven data collection with interactive reporting tools. For Accern, we designed a hybrid interface that merges prompt-based AI interaction with dynamic widgets and data visualizations. The result is a seamless research-to-report workflow within a clean, intuitive split-screen layout.
How to help financial teams work faster on reports?
By removing workflow friction. After analyzing how financial researchers operate, we helped Accern launch a report creator mode that eliminates the need to switch between tabs or windows. Users can drag and drop both text and widget-based data into a split-screen workspace—making it easier to generate, edit, and format reports without losing focus.
How can AI help VC investors and researchers be more productive?
AI chat alone isn’t enough. Financial researchers and VC investors need tools that handle complexity with clarity. For Accern’s Rhea platform, we transformed a basic prompt field into an advanced command interface. This empowered users to search files, automate notifications, schedule calls, manage email sequences, and more—all within their existing research workflow.
What’s the best UX approach for building AI-powered financial tools?
Design around how analysts actually think and work. With Rhea, we moved beyond static chat interfaces and built a dynamic UI that responds to user prompts—surfacing charts, references, and interactive elements as needed. It’s adaptive, efficient, and purpose-built for deep research tasks.
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