These days, robots can even help you with your money.
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When you think of artificial intelligence, or AI, what immediately comes to mind? For many, the answer is ChatGPT. The promise of introducing AI – embodied by applications such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Of the alphabet (GOOG) Gemini—attracts many Internet users.
Use cases for AI have been proliferating since long before AI became consumer friendly, enabling businesses to automate, personalize, and transform a variety of processes. If you’ve ever used a chatbot, or received online recommendations for insurance plans, or used tax preparation software, then you’ve already interacted with AI.
Important Points
- Artificial Intelligence is widely used throughout the financial world.
- Generative AI supports exciting new use cases, from budgeting and planning to financial intelligence.
- Generative AI is not perfect, so approach it carefully if you use it for money tasks.
Artificial intelligence that generates new content in response to any type of request creates many new AI use cases. But there’s a big caveat: Just because AI can do something doesn’t mean AI can do it well. AI systems such as ChatGPT have become notorious for producing factual errors and completely “hallucinating” fictional events and sources of information. If your goal is to spend money wisely and achieve your financial goals, then you should use tools that you can trust.
As artificial intelligence changes the financial world, it can support your efforts to budget, save and plan more effectively.
1. Make a budget
You can use generative AI to help you create a personalized budget. You’ll still need to go through all the steps to gather your financial information, including income, expenses, and liabilities, but you can get help from AI to create a budget that works.
AI helps in many ways to make your financial plan. If a certain budgeting method—like using the 50-30-20 rule—appeals to you, then artificial intelligence can help. You can create a monthly, weekly, or daily budget, with all expenses broken down however you like.
Whether you’re using AI or a spreadsheet, the 50-30-20 rule provides a solid platform for creating your own money.
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Advanced AI chatbots can generate spreadsheets, but using AI to generate a financial plan might sound tedious. Financial planning tools like Cleo and Monarch Money use AI to enable financial planning and management through user-friendly interfaces.
2. Plan your financial future
Artificial intelligence can help you with financial planning and setting achievable financial goals, which are often a key part of financial planning. You’ll need to do some work up front to provide your AI tool with relevant data and information, including:
You may have an idea of what you want to achieve, but you need a financial road map to help you get there. Like creating a budget, predictive AI can support you – although AI-powered tools designed to provide financial guidance can be more satisfying to use.
Not sure how to get started with AI?
If you intend to use AI to perform a specific task, a good way to start is with a question. For example, you might ask: “What information do you need from me to create a structured financial plan?” That should point you in the right direction.
3. Learn about finances
Generative AI can help you learn almost anything, including topics related to your money. You can use AI chatbot tools to analyze financial situations and ideas, and find the best ways to improve your spending, saving and investing. AI tools support self-learning, so if you come across any topic that really interests you, you can keep digging deeper.
You can ask AI chatbots to provide you with a variety of educational resources, including summaries, guides, and tutorials. If you prefer bulleted content or lists or step-by-step instructions, you request that they be sent in that format. Generative AI can create educational content designed for beginners, intermediates, or experts.
Using AI for learning may not be easy — but the big difference is that AI produces information that is not always accurate. Especially when you’re researching topics related to your money, you need to trust that what you’re reading is accurate. You can specify when recommending AI tools that you want links to original sources, and then use those sources to verify all information generated by AI.
4. Play financial education games
Want to improve your financial skills and have fun doing it? If just reading information sounds boring, you can use AI to play fun and educational games. Start with an impulse, like “I want to learn about budgeting in a game-like way,” and see where it takes you.
Cyber money planning and robo advisor
AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT can turn money topics into interactive games, such as:
Your gaming experience with AI chatbots will be largely determined by the recommendations you use. Customize your data to create a fun or rewarding financial education game.
5. Simulate debt negotiations and payment terms
You can use generative AI to simulate financial situations. For example, AI tools can help you compare loan repayment schedules and facilitate discussions with creditors.
Let’s say you’re struggling with the bills you have to pay. What is the best repayment plan—paying off small debts first (“snowball method”), paying off high-interest debts first (“avalanche method”), or some other method? Generative AI can simulate different repayment scenarios to help you create a solid repayment plan.
Generative AI can play a role with you to simulate a conversation with a lender. You can use these simulations to practice good communication and negotiation skills, and get feedback from the AI chatbot on how to improve your language and style.
Important point
Artificial Intelligence has many use cases, but it bears repeating: Your idioms may vary. Remember that the quality of the output with generative AI is directly linked to your inputs, and that you should always be ready to verify the “truths” that AI can give you. AI tools can only get better over time, especially if you continue to experiment with AI to learn how the technology can enhance and improve your financial journey.
Specific companies and products are mentioned in this article for educational purposes only and not as an endorsement.
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