OpenAI wants to move into personal finance after announcing a new tool on ChatGPT that lets you connect all of your banking accounts and details to the chatbot.
In its announcement, OpenAI told us that US Pro users can now add their accounts into the tool and ask questions based on their real finance data. Here’s what OpenAI said:
“Today we’re releasing a preview of a new personal finance experience in ChatGPT to Pro users in the U.S. Now you can securely connect your financial accounts, see a dashboard of where your money is going, and ask ChatGPT questions grounded in your financial context – all while staying in control of your data.”
Why Is OpenAI Taking This Route?
So ChatGPT wants to go from just answering your general questions to analysing your spending habits, your monthly subscriptions, your debts, savings – all using live financial information.
OpenAI believes this tool makes sense because, “Money touches nearly every part of life: where we live, what decisions we make, how we care for loved ones, what future we imagine. But managing finances today often means piecing together accounts, apps, cards, loans, and spreadsheets just to know where things stand.”
What Data Will ChatGPT Actually See?
Connecting financial accounts gives ChatGPT access to balances, spending transactions, investments and liabilities.
OpenAI said the system cannot access full account numbers or make changes to accounts. The company wrote, “When you connect your accounts, ChatGPT can access your balances, transactions, investments, and liabilities to help visualise your finances or answer your questions. It cannot see full account numbers or make any changes to your accounts.”
Users can disconnect accounts at any time, and OpenAI said synced financial data will be deleted from its systems within 30 days after disconnection.
The company also said users can store financial details as memory, which means ChatGPT can remember personal money information such as debts, goals or upcoming purchases.
OpenAI explained this in its blog post, “ChatGPT can remember key details you share, like goals, obligations, or context about your money, to make future financial conversations across ChatGPT more relevant and personalised.”
That creates a more personalised finance assistant, but it also means people are handing over extremely private financial information to an AI company.
Should People Be Cautious With AI Financial Tools?
OpenAI does emphasise that this shouldn’t replace professional advice, but it’s important to realise that once these tools are made available, many people will inevitably do that.
OpenAI’s exact words in its announcement were, ““ChatGPT can help you stay informed and feel more confident managing your finances, but it is not a replacement for professional financial advice.”
AI often gives very faulty financial advice with many people losing money after following financial advice from chatbots.
Then there’s the issue of privacy – AI can be very risky when it comes to your data.
Cybersecurity experts constantly warn us against uploading your financial documents to AI systems because data leaks do happen.
So, this is the trade off users are being asked to make: AI tools can organise your money information quickly, but they also collect extremely personal data.
Where Does A Podcaster And Copilot Make This More Dangerous?
In case you missed it, author and podcast host Mel Robbins told her followers that they should be uploading their financial documents onto Microsoft’s Copilot.
Robbins encouraged her audience of mostly women to use AI tools to organise their finances and avoid falling behind in AI adoption.
Of course, this advice received a tonne of backlash because one of the prompts encouraged users to upload bank statements, debt documents, bills and income details straight into the chatbot.
Uploading raw financial documents without removing account numbers, ID numbers or other personal details creates unnecessary risk. Even when platforms have privacy controls, no digital platform is immune from security failures, breaches or misuse.
Microsoft responded by defending its privacy tools. The company said, “Copilot prioritises security and privacy and gives users the option to choose which types of information it remembers about them. Users can also opt out entirely. Consumers can ask Copilot to remember, update, or delete specific facts at any time.”
It’s so important to think twice and do your research before handing over any kind of personal data.
Reading privacy policies, understanding what information is stored, checking whether chats are used for training and removing sensitive details before uploading documents should be standard.
Sure, AI can organise finances and answer useful questions, but it cannot replace financial professionals and cybersecurity awareness, but most of all, it cannot replace common sense.
