AI assistants appear to be the next focus for how the technology can improve payments, with several large fintechs making moves in recent weeks.
Revolut revealed it is experimenting with an AI financial assistant during a Bloomberg New Voices event in Milan (June 17), with UK CEO Francesca Carlesi stating the tool will go live “shortly.”
The assistant is designed to act as a personalised financial companion, helping users make smarter money decisions, manage their spending and reduce time spent on admin within the app.
During the interview, Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua asked: “Can I still spend the money I want, or will someone say, ‘Please don’t buy this’?”
Carlesi explained people will be free to spend whatever they want, but noted regulatory boundaries limit how far the assistant can go.
“Regulators are pushing us to embrace AI, but at the same time, they want an audit trail,” she said.
“In reality, you could have an AI agent every day which summarises to you what is happening at these different companies [in your stock portfolio]. AI could already go the extra mile and tell you, ‘Well, maybe you should invest,’ but we cannot do it.”
Carlesi’s remarks hint that while AI is capable of doing more, such as suggesting investments, those same capabilities are exactly why regulation exists in the first place.
The idea of an assistant nudging a user to invest, even subtly, begins to blur the line between guidance and advice, territory that’s tightly regulated for a reason.
Fintechs may view these rules as frustrating limits on what AI can do, but they reflect a long-established reality. However, algorithms aren’t immune to bias, error, or unintended influence.
A pattern is forming
In the short term, a more realistic use case for Revolut’s AI assistant may resemble what Starling Bank has already launched with its Spending Intelligence feature.
Launched on June 10 and developed in partnership with Google’s Gemini Large Language Model (LLM), the tool helps both personal and business account holders gain more insights into their spending, for example, tracking how much they’ve spent in a given month.
Starling is the first UK bank to fully integrate this kind of generative AI feature into its app.
“[We’re] really pleased to be the first UK bank putting Generative AI in the hands of our customers,” said Declan Ferguson, Chief of Finance at Starling.
“This feature, powered by Google’s Gemini, is our first step towards a bigger ambition to implement AI within our banking app to all customers.”
While Starling’s Spending Intelligence focuses on retrospective insights, Revolut may be expected to take the experience further, offering more personalised tools to help its service stand out to potential customers.
