SAN FRANCISCO —Numerous fintechs are expanding their use of artificial intelligence to create new virtual financial assistants for consumers.
Among those companies is Digit, which currently creates free automated savings accounts and which to date has helped customers put aside over $250 million, but it is now working to provide its users with their own financial advisor as well.
Digit isn’t alone, according to the Wall Street Journal. Credit Karma and Mint, two popular financial applications with many millions more users than Digit, are also rolling out suites of new features that will make them feel more like robotic financial advisors, “tapping customers on the shoulder when they could make better financial decisions,” according to the Journal. Among the tools in those suites is automated tax preparation.
In addition, the Journal noted a new app called “Albert” from Albert Corp. provides a personalized savings account as Digit does, but it can also look at existing car insurance policies and credit cards and ferret out better deals.
“The start-ups and the banks are still far from delivering on the promise of a digital assistant that actually takes care of your financial problems for you,” the Wall Street Journal analysis said. “Credit Karma and Mint still require you to enter many of your own details. But all the players in the field are working with machine learning and artificial intelligence that will increasingly provide proactive analysis and advice rather than forcing someone to constantly check in.”
CUToday.info has also recently launched a series of articles examining the application of artificial intelligence within credit unions, including forecasts for what might lie ahead. That series, which is ongoing, can be found in The feature.