Understanding a Belgian company should not require clicking through dozens of data points before forming a first opinion. Even with all information unified on openthebox, professionals often need a clear and reliable starting point that highlights what truly matters.
Our new AI Summary solves exactly that. It provides an instant, objective overview based on the most relevant financial and ownership signals from the past three years. It gives users the fastest possible read on a company’s current situation, recent trajectory and key points of attention.
This feature also marks a new milestone. It is the first time users can interact directly with AI inside the platform. Below is a deeper look at the thinking, engineering and design that made it possible with Jona, Robert & Filip. You can see the full video conversation below.
Why we built it
Financial professionals build narratives every day. To do that, they need focus, not friction. Collecting a company’s fundamentals can be repetitive and time consuming. The team wanted to give users a head start by condensing the essentials into a single, factual summary that appears in under one minute.
From the beginning, the objective was clear. The summary had to be structured, consistent and free from subjective language. It needed to save time without sacrificing trust or interpretative freedom. Or as Jona put it in his interview, “The goal was to remove repetitive work without removing control.”
What was difficult behind the scenes
Finding speed without losing quality
The biggest challenge across engineering, product and design was performance. Early versions could take several minutes to produce a single summary. The team explored multiple approaches, including pre-generating reports. This was quickly ruled out since it would produce unused summaries and outdated information.
The final choice was the hardest one. Everything would be generated at the moment the user requests it. This required a complete redesign of how data points were prepared, filtered and delivered to the model.
Giving the model the right context
More data does not always mean better output. The model receives financial statements, ownership movements, historical records, structural metadata and internal signals. Feeding all of that directly would overwhelm the model and create room for hallucinations.
Filip spent considerable time determining what the model should see, in which order and at what level of detail. He also added protective layers that prevent the model from performing its own calculations, since doing that would introduce errors. His single quote captures it well: “The real challenge was turning a very large data universe into context the model could actually understand.”
Keeping the summary predictable and consistent
A core requirement was that every summary follows the same structure. Users should immediately recognise where to find trends, signals and ownership information. Achieving that level of consistency required many iterations on prompt design and validation.
On the frontend side, Robert focused heavily on how to display partial or delayed results in a way that feels stable and trustworthy. He summarized the UX challenge as followed: “The experience needed to feel natural. Even while users are waiting, they should feel that something reliable is being prepared for them.”
Designing an intuitive and engaging user experience
Because a summary may take up to a minute to generate, the team designed an interaction pattern that balances feedback with non-intrusiveness. The feature appears as a modal with a clear state transition and subtle animations that communicate progress without overwhelming the user.
The loading effect went through multiple iterations. The final version creates a sense of momentum and intention while keeping the focus on the upcoming result. The overall goal was simple. Even waiting should feel like part of a smooth workflow.
What users gain from the feature
A clear overview
The summary highlights the main movements inside a company. It surfaces what matters most for a first assessment and does so in a structure that is easy to scan and easy to compare across companies.
A faster workflow
Instead of scanning raw figures and historical structures, users begin with a reliable interpretation that is grounded in openthebox’s data logic. This turns the summary into an immediate starting point for deeper research.
A consistent foundation for decision making
Because every summary follows the same template, teams can align faster. It removes unnecessary debate on basic facts and lets professionals focus on interpretation, strategy and next steps.
The decisions that shaped the feature
Throughout development, several choices had an outsized impact.
Focusing on the last three years
The team decided to limit the summary to a recent time window. This avoids outdated signals and keeps the summary relevant for forecasting, risk assessments and market context.
Generating everything in real time
Although technically demanding, this decision ensures that every summary reflects the most recent data in openthebox. It also avoids unnecessary system load and removes the need for storing thousands of unused reports.
Driving load times below one minute
This became a shared mission across the team. Engineering optimised context preparation. Product refined the scope. UX shaped how waiting feels. Frontend removed anything that slowed rendering. The result is a feature that meets the time expectations of professionals without compromising quality.
Where the feature is going next
The current release is an MVP. The long term vision is a more conversational and adaptive assistant that understands what the user needs and adjusts the summary accordingly.
Some of the ideas on the roadmap include:
- Industry specific summaries for banks, funds and advisory teams
- The ability to enrich the summary by dragging additional data points into it
- More personalised insights based on user behaviour
- Deeper integration into workflows and external systems
The objective is not just to summarise data. It is to offer a companion that prepares relevant information the moment a user needs it.
Final thoughts
The AI Summary marks the beginning of a more interactive and intelligent experience inside openthebox. The platform has long relied on AI behind the scenes. Now it begins to surface in a way that users can directly engage with.
The commitment remains the same. Deliver higher quality. Reduce friction. Make the product feel natural for financial professionals who expect precision and speed.
Your feedback will shape the next iteration. If you try the feature and have thoughts to share, we would love to hear them.
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