Recently, as an experiment, I gave a bunch of my financial information to an AI chatbot. I know what you’re thinking — it sure doesn’t sound like the wisest move. While the large language models that power such bots are good at many things, math is not historically one of them. Still, a growing number of startups are training generative AI tools to work like financial coaches. Some of them are pretty good, too.

Cleo, which bills itself as “the world’s first AI financial assistant,” got a big update that uses OpenAI’s sophisticated o3 reasoning model to help users break down complex financial decisions. The app also now has the ability to remember your financial history and goals. You can even talk to the app with a new two-way voice feature. At some point, Cleo might ask you if you want to take out a loan.

I’d been using the previous version of Cleo for a few weeks without any big breakthroughs. But when I linked my bank accounts (securely!) to Cleo 3.0, the latest version of the artificially intelligent financial assistant, I was stunned by how handy it was to ask detailed questions about my spending habits, savings goals, and retirement planning in plain English and get useful answers. The app is built on top of ChatGPT and is specifically trained to handle those kinds of questions. It’s also equipped with tools to do the math correctly.

In the past, only the very wealthy have been able to map out their financial futures like this. In the very near future, anyone could do it for free.

There’s something revolutionary about this concept. And that’s not just Cleo’s executives talking. A number of experts have told me that tools built on top of large language models like ChatGPT stand to transform the world of financial advice and planning. They have the ability to ingest vast amounts of your financial data, they’re trained on the same materials a human financial planner might use, and they can answer an endless number of questions based on that knowledge and expertise. In the past, only the very wealthy have been able to map out their financial futures like this. In the very near future, anyone could do it for free.

“We’re on the cusp of a pretty significant change in how [people] are able to use AI to help manage their........

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