Leaders in artificial Intelligence companies often ask users (and investors) to imagine a not-too-distant future in which AI coaches, trained on personal data and past interactions, help users achieve their wildest dreams. Do you want to be more active? Here you have a training designed by AI. Do you want to monitor your long-term well-being? Try this AI health app. Do you want to solve your money problems? There is a personal finance chatbot for that. Multiple, actually.
My goal is to be debt-free by the end of 2025, and as a journalist who often tries out new software, I was curious to try some of the AI financial advisors that have gained popularity in recent years. Hiring a human money manager can easily cost a few thousand dollars, which is why more and more people, especially younger users, are turning to AI tools for advice. From Apple’s top lists of free financial apps, I decided to try two well-reviewed options that offer chatbots aimed at solving money problems: cleo ai and Bright.
Both Cleo AI and Bright encourage users to connect their bank account to the app through a third-party service called Plaid. This allows chatbots to break spending habits, help users pay off debt, and build credit. “Using your banking details and what you’ve told us, Cleo will be your kind of confidant or coach,” says Barney Hussey-Yeo, CEO and founder of the company. “She will provide you with the right advice and the right products to help you make better financial decisions.”
True, but some of the guidance Cleo gave me strayed from that path. While it had interesting moments, like a friendly barbecue highlighting where I unnecessarily overspent, the generative AI tool seemed primarily concerned with using my personal data for upsell opportunities. Bright was the same.
For example, I started a conversation by pretending to be sad and without enough money to buy food. According to Hussey-Yeo, the main demographic of Cleo users are young people who live paycheck to paycheck and “feel the pain of finances more than most people.” So I thought this would be the kind of thing users would share all the time. The robot feigned friendliness and immediately began encouraging me to check if I was eligible for a cash advance through the app.
After Cleo approved my eligibility for a cash advance, I was asked 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 increments over two days. Technically, users do not have to pay a fee for the cash advance if they are willing to wait approximately three or four business days, a difficult task for people who live between paychecks and a distraction from my goal of paying off old debts.
Cleo also offered me a same-day money transfer if I agreed to pay an $8 express fee. This would mean I would have to pay back $73 about a week later for the advance. After failing to do so the first time, the app increased my total limit to $200 the next day, split into two $100 increments. According to Hussey-Yeo, around a third of Cleo’s revenue comes from cash advances, with the rest coming from subscriptions and a card designed to help users. strengthen your credit scores. In the end, Cleo felt more like a temptation to get into additional short-term debt than a real solution to my money problems.
Although the Cleo app doesn’t currently include offers for larger loans, Bright’s financial chatbot, marketed as an “artificially intelligent debt manager,” does. A subscription to Bright’s AI assistant costs more, $39 for three months of access, but also promises access to more cash, up to $10,000 through third-party lenders. Compared to the other AI financial chatbot I tested, Bright’s results included more confusing errors, such as claiming that I lost more than $7,000 in non-sufficient funds fees over the past month, an absurdly incorrect amount.