Leadership in artificiality Intelligence companies often ask users (and investors) to imagine a not-so-distant future, where artificial intelligence Coaches, trained on personal data and past interactions, help users achieve their wildest dreams. You want to be more active? This is an exercise designed by AI. Want to track your long-term health? Try this AI health app. Want to fix your money problems? There's a personal finance chatbot for that. Actually, a lot.
My goal is to be debt-free by the end of 2025, and as a reporter who regularly tests new software, I was curious to try out some of the AI financial advisors that have become popular in recent years. Hiring a human money manager can easily cost several thousand dollars, so more and more people, especially younger users, are turning to AI tools for advice. From Apple's top free charts financial applicationI decided to try two well-reviewed options that offer chatbots to fix the money problem: Cleo AI And Bright.
Both Cleo AI and Bright encourage users to connect their bank accounts to the app through a third-party service called Plaid. This allows chatbot to break spending habits, help users pay off debt and build credit. “Using your banking data and what you told us, Cleo will be your confidant or coach,” said Barney Hussey-Yeo, CEO and founder of the company. . “She will provide the right advice and the right products to help you make better financial decisions.”
Fair enough, but some of the instructions Cleo gave me strayed from that path. While it has its charming moments, such as a friendly standout grill that had me overspending in unnecessary ways, the synthetic AI engine seems mostly preoccupied with using personal data for additional sales opportunities. Bright is the same.
For example, I started a conversation looking sad and lacking money to buy groceries. According to Hussey-Yeo, Cleo's core audience is young people who are living paycheck to paycheck and “feel the financial pain more than most people.” So I think this will be something that users always share. bot pretend to sympathize and immediately started encouraging me to check if I qualified for a cash advance through the app.
After Cleo confirmed my cash advance eligibility, I was prompted to sign up for a $6 monthly Cleo Plus membership. The first time I used it, the app offered a $130 cash advance, divided into $65 over two days. Technically, users don't have to pay a cash advance fee if they're willing to wait about three to four business days—a difficult feat for those living paycheck to paycheck and distracting from my goals. Pay off all previous debts.
Cleo also offered me a same-day transfer if I agreed to pay the $8 express shipping fee. This meant I would have to pay back the $73 advance about a week later. After failing the first time, the app increased my total limit to $200 the next day, split into two $100 increments. According to Hussey-Yeo, about a third of Cleo's revenue comes from cash advances, with the remainder made through subscriptions and cards designed to help users. Enhance their credit score. Ultimately, Cleo felt more like a temptation to take on more short-term debt than a real solution to my money problems.
While the Cleo app doesn't currently include incentives for larger loans, Bright's financial chatbot, marketed as an “AI debt manager,” does. A subscription to Bright's AI assistant costs more, $39 for three months of access, but it also promises more cash, up to $10,000 through a third-party lender. Compared to other AI financial chatbots I tested, Bright's output had more puzzling errors, such as claiming that I lost more than 7,000 USD due to insufficient deposit fees in the past month, some absurdly wrong money.