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Many bank and finance apps have AI tools embedded to help you manage, move or control your money better
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When was the last time you logged into your bank and asked the app to do something, rather than manually moving money or checking something yourself?
People are increasingly using AI to give guidance around their finances, though experts have cautioned against handing over full decision-making control. Research from Uswitch suggests incorrect chatbot advice has caused one in four users (25 per cent) financial losses – but that’s from external, third-party AI tools, not built-in, purpose-built features by financial services firms.
When you are using a tool within your bank’s app, for example, it is still subject to all the usual regulations and protections you would expect with any other dealings with them.
That means it’s likely already been rolled out to a smaller number of clients earlier, tested, approved and eventually brought to your device – hopefully all in working order.
It also tends to mean there are some necessary limitations in what the AI tools do, to stay within the scope of the app itself or your relationship with the financial services provider.
But even so, what they can do and what they’ll be useful for in future is already expanding noticeably.
Take British digital bank Starling, for example. They’ve this week launched ‘smart tools’ in their app to remove the burden from their users of having to think about how to best use AI, instead offering them preconfigured prompts which, depending on answers given, can then assess which tools might be most useful to help users get more out of their money.
“Many of the tools are requested by customers themselves. My personal favourite is an upcoming tool called ‘weekend damage’: ask it ‘what was the damage this weekend’ and watch the assistant assess how much you went over budget, how and where, before it helps you make a new budget plan for the rest of the month,” Bernadette Smith, chief banking officer at Starling, told The Independent.
There’s also the fact that the people using AI tools might not be the expected ones.
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“When we launched Starling Assistant, we expected our tech savvy customers to be our most popular adopters. But actually our biggest users are those we didn’t expect - those who are newer to the bank or less AI-minded, who could immediately see the value of directing the assistant on their behalf rather than navigating the app for themselves,” Ms Smith added.
More tools include adding automatic VAT sweeps for businesses on income, quizzing users on the spending they think they’ve done before showing them what they’ve actually spent and showing students how to budget – all further examples of how AI within an app can be somewhat personal to those using them, rather than the traditional one-size-fits-all approach of money apps of yesteryear.
Fellow challenger bank Zopa’s app redesign includes an AI assistant you can speak with and give instructions to, including for moving money between your different accounts, while NatWest’s digital assistant (named Cora) has been around for a while and can be used for straightforward requests around your account such as getting your PIN, updating addresses and so on.
Metro Bank’s app gives AI-powered analysis and spending insights; Plum’s Gemini-powered AI tool will help you track and target your goals; Chip wants to bring an all-out personalised guidance plan accessible to all users growing their wealth in all ways.
In short, artificial intelligence is everywhere in the day-to-day apps you are likely already using, even if you’ve not realised the features you use are AI-powered.
Elsewhere, bunq – Europe’s second largest neobank which describes itself as the world’s first Gen-AI powered bank – released an AI in Finance report earlier this year showing 60 per cent of Millennials had used AI to make a financial decision, while one in three younger Brits “put aside over £500 through AI-guided decisions”.
“Younger users tend to use AI as a learning tool; they ask broader questions, look for guidance, and use it to build confidence. In contrast, older generations are more focused on optimisation of their financial wellbeing: budgeting, tracking spending, and making more informed decisions with what they already have,” said bunq’s Joe Wilson.
Pension provider Scottish Widows, meanwhile, say almost one in three (30 per cent) people trust AI tools when it comes to getting help with their retirement savings though, perhaps wisely, that is still an area where human reassurance still seems to be required before final choices are made.
Maria Herrero-Bullich, chief customer officer, said: “As AI becomes a normal part of managing our money, trust is essential. It’s clear that for those bigger, more complex moments people still value speaking to a financial expert, so the human factor and AI can comfortably co-exist to provide people with the confidence to make more informed decisions about their future.”
As for what’s next, those who are building the technology the apps are built from say it’s clearly around more proactively pushing consumers to make moves they are not already doing.
“The advice gap, the protection gap, £300bn sitting in low-interest accounts - they are all data problems as much as they are education and guidance problems,” said Nejc Korosec, head of public policy at Moneyhub, a data intelligence platform for finance firms.
“Better data infrastructure means AI can help more people understand their own finances. Get it wrong, and it just makes the same old frictions faster.”
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