Could AI Become Your New Financial Advisor in 2024?

With the rise of ChatGPT, it seems like generative AI is everywhere these days -- and banks and financial services companies are trying to find ways to use AI in banking and financial advice. There is potential for AI to play a bigger role in financial services, especially if it can help banks provide better customer support, help people understand their financial options, or help people do faster research on financial questions.

Whether it's a chatbot for customers, or a behind-the-scenes research assistant for financial advisors and bank staff, AI could be coming to banking and financial services in new ways in 2024.

Let's look at a few examples of how banks and other companies are using AI for financial advice, and what it could mean for your personal finances and banking experiences.

Intuit Assist: Make money decisions with AI help

Intuit Credit Karma recently launched a new chatbot called Intuit Assist. This is a generative AI-powered financial assistant that helps Credit Karma members make money decisions. Here are a few ways that Intuit Assist uses the power of generative AI to provide personalized recommendations:

• Choose the right credit card: Intuit Assist can help you review your overall credit card usage. If you're spending a lot of money in certain categories on your credit card, the chatbot can recommend the best credit cards to use to help you get more rewards.
• Earn more frequent flyer miles: If you book a ticket for a flight, the AI assistant will recognize that you're about to take a trip -- and recommend ideas for how to earn the most frequent flyer points while traveling. It also suggests ways to use your travel rewards credit cards to get the most value and best perks.
• Apply for loans: What if you're running low on cash and need a personal loan? The Intuit Assist AI chatbot can show you multiple options for loans that you might qualify for, with details about monthly payments and potential savings. You can even apply for a loan through the Credit Karma app.

What it means for your personal finances: As of December 2023, Intuit Assist was not yet available to all Credit Karma members. But as the rollout of Intuit Assist continues in 2024, the AI assistant should become available to more members. Watch for a new Intuit Assist icon to appear within the Credit Karma app. This is an example of the type of AI support that could be coming to more personal finance and budgeting apps soon.

Morgan Stanley: Generative AI for financial advisors

In September 2023, Morgan Stanley announced the launch of AI @ Morgan Stanley Assistant, a new research tool that the bank created with OpenAI's generative AI technology. It's the first Wall Street firm to use GPT-4 AI technology for everyday use by bank employees.

AI @ Morgan Stanley Assistant is not for customers; it's a generative AI research support tool for Morgan Stanley financial advisors to use. Morgan Stanley advisors can use AI to help them do faster research within the investment bank's database of 100,000 reports and documents. The goal: help financial advisors spend more time with their wealth management clients.

What it means for your personal finances: Unless you're a Morgan Stanley wealth management customer, you're not personally going to benefit from this new AI tool. But this is a noteworthy story in the banking industry, because it could be the start of a bigger trend toward AI-supported research. In the future, the most important AI tools for banking might not interact with customers at all -- they could be behind the scenes, helping bankers do their jobs better.

OneUnited Bank and WiseOne® Insights: AI personal finance advice for bank customers

In October 2023, OneUnited Bank announced the launch of WiseOne® Insights, an AI "financial wellness companion" that offers bank customers personalized financial advice within the bank's mobile app. WiseOne uses the power of AI to analyze your spending based on your bank account activity, and recommend smart money moves that are tailored to your needs.

Here are a few different ways the OneUnited Bank AI financial assistant can help you:

• Save enough to live on: The AI companion analyzes your monthly spending and current bank account balances to show you how long your savings would last in case you lost your job -- and help you make a plan to boost your emergency savings.
• Debt payoff plan: If you have credit card debt or other personal loans that are costing you money in interest, the AI tool can also recommend debt payoff strategies. It can help you choose a debt snowball or debt avalanche plan.
• Detecting new fees and extra costs: The AI technology can also detect unusual fees, higher than usual bill amounts, and duplicate charges. This helps you protect your money from mistakes or misunderstandings.

What it means for your personal finances: Many banks and credit unions are trying to offer more advanced, personalized financial support and recommendations for their customers. AI tools like OneUnited Bank's WiseOne® Insights are likely to become more widespread in the near future. If your bank doesn't already offer AI-powered recommendations and support, it's likely to start soon. (Or you could switch to a bank that does.)

Bottom line: Intuit Assist, OneUnited Bank's WiseOne Insights, and Morgan Stanley's AI assistant are all prominent examples of how financial services companies are trying to use the power of AI to offer more personalized support to customers. If used correctly and carefully, AI has the potential to help banks sort through massive amounts of information and make helpful, actionable recommendations to customers. AI could help you build a stronger foundation for your personal finances.