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Artificial leaders intelligence companies often ask users (and investors) to imagine a not-so-distant future where AI coaches, trained on personal data and past interactions, help users realize their wildest dreams. Want to be more active? Here is a workout designed by AI. Do you want to monitor your long-term well-being? Try this AI health app. Want to fix your money problems? There’s 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 tests 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, so more people, especially younger users, are turning to AI tools for advice. From Apple’s free top charts finance appI decided to try two well-reviewed options that offer chatbots aimed at fixing 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 the chatbots to break down spending habits, help users pay off debt, and build credit. “Using bank data and what you told us, Cleo will be your kind of confidant or coach,” says Barney Hussey-Yeo, CEO and founder of the company. “She will give you the right advice and the right products to help you make better financial decisions.”
Fair enough, but some of the guides Cleo gave me deviated from that path. Although it had interesting moments, such as a friendly roast that pointed out where I had wasted time, the generative AI tool seemed mainly concerned with using my personal data for upselling opportunities. Bright was the same.
For example, I started a conversation pretending to be sad and didn’t have enough money to buy groceries. According to Hussey-Yeo, Cleo’s core user demographic is 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 that users have been sharing all the time. The bot fake sympathy and immediately started encouraging me to check if I was eligible for a cash advance through the app.
After Cleo cleared my eligibility for a cash advance, I was invited to sign up for a $6 monthly Cleo Plus membership. The first time I used it, the app offered a $130 advance, split into $65 increments over two days. Users technically don’t have to pay a cash advance fee if they’re willing to wait an estimated three to four business days — a difficult feat for people living between paychecks and a distraction from my purpose of paying the previous debts.
Cleo also offered me a money transfer on the same day if I agreed to pay an express fee of $8. This would mean that I would have to pay $73 about a week later for the advance. After not going through with it during my first time, the app increased my total limit to $200 the next day, divided into two increments of $100. According to Hussey-Yeo, about a third of Cleo’s revenue comes from cash advances, with the remaining amount made for subscriptions and a card designed to help users. boost their credit scores. Ultimately, Cleo felt more like a temptation to take on additional short-term debt, rather 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 “AI debt manager.” A subscription to Bright’s AI assistant costs more, $39 for three months of access, but also promises access to more money, up to $10,000 through third-party lenders. Compared to the other AI finance chatbot I tested, Bright’s results included more confusing errors, such as stating that I lost more than $7,000 in insufficient funds expenses in the past month, an absurdly wrong amount.
