AI and personal finances: Does it add up?

If you're looking for a fast, easy way to manage your personal finances, artificial intelligence could help by serving as a virtual financial assistant. But the technology may have a way to go before it can serve as a trustworthy financial management tool, writes columnist Christopher Liew.

If you’re looking for a fast, easy way to manage your personal finances, artificial intelligence (AI) could help by serving as a virtual financial assistant. It can help you pay your bills, save or invest money, analyze your spending and even give you tips to help improve your credit.

However, AI is still experimental, prone to errors, and many regard it as potentially unsafe. While AI technology is arguably our generation’s greatest technological advancement, it may have a way to go before it can serve as a trustworthy financial management tool.

AI has proven to be immensely helpful for a number of practical applications, including:

It’s not just a tool for creators, though. AI programs like Open AI’s ChatGPT can offer financial advice, market analysis and more.

A number of financial management and budgeting apps are also being developed with integrated AI systems to improve users’ experience and provide more detailed insights into their finances.

For example, RBC recently launched its NOMI Insights AI program to help customers. According to the bank, NOMI Insights aims to provide customers with alerts, reminders and financial insights. BMO has been using AI in some of its investment tools to help provide advice to some of their customers. 

Integrating AI into finance apps can create a better user experience by offering personalized insights, tips and alerts that customers would traditionally need to ask their accountants for.