The Money Prompt: Consumers Want Advice Without Giving Up Control

Key Findings

1. Money management climbs the ladder.
   On average, 24% of consumers used AI for money management from May to September 2026, up 8% from the previous eight months.
2. Bank linking has not lifted ChatGPT.
   ChatGPT’s reach for money management fell after it added bank linking, dropping from 17% to 15% of consumers. Claude (3% to 4%) and Gemini (12% to 13%) both grew.
3. Chatbots are becoming the front door.
   Four in 10 users who turned to Gen AI for money management fully or mostly replaced their old method.
4. Direct money management is down.
   Only 16% of consumers are interested in letting AI directly manage their money, a 21% drop from late 2025. AI power users are the most interested (41%).

AI Reaches More Consumers but Handles Fewer Money Tasks

More consumers are incorporating AI into their money management routines. Across the May-September 2026 surveys, 24% of all consumers reported using Gen AI for it in the previous 12 months, up 8% from the September 2025-April 2026 average. Among personal AI users, the share rose from 39% to 41%. This was the largest relative gain among nine activity categories, lifting money management from sixth to fourth place.

That said, the recent gains may be leveling off. In September, 38% of personal AI users reported using it for money management, down from 43% in May and close to the level from one year earlier.

Consumers use AI for a range of financial tasks, with no single activity dominating. Among those who used AI for money management in July-September 2026, 39% did so to compare financial products and to get tips on saving, debt or credit. Creating a budget followed at 35%.

Use declined across most tasks compared with September-November 2025, while product comparisons held roughly steady. Among consumers using AI for money management, the average number of tasks fell from 2.1 to 1.8, suggesting that broader adoption has not yet translated into broader use.

Older consumers posted the strongest growth. Money management use among baby boomers and seniors rose 34%, from 13% in September 2025-April 2026 to 17% in May-September. Generation Z was the only generation to decline, from 30% to 28%. Use rose from 43% to 47% among mainstream users and reached 84% among power users, the most active group.

Consumers under greater financial pressure are less likely to use AI for money management. In May-September, 20% of those living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to pay bills did so, compared with 27% of those not living paycheck to paycheck.

ChatGPT’s Lead Narrows Despite Bank Linking

By connecting their bank and card accounts to their AI assistants, consumers can get financial guidance tailored to their balances, transactions and spending patterns. Assistants can use this information to suggest budgets, explain fees and identify opportunities to save or manage debt.

ChatGPT added bank and card connections for Pro subscribers in May, and Plus subscribers in June. Perplexity introduced account connections through Plaid in April, Claude gained a third-party finance connector in May and Gemini added credit and spending insights in late September.

ChatGPT still leads the measured platforms for money management, but its advantage has recently narrowed. Its reach fell from 17% of all consumers in April-June to 15% in July-September, an 8% decline. Its September reading, 14%, was the lowest since tracking began in April. Gemini increased from 12% to 13%, moving closer to the leader.

Claude, meanwhile, climbed from 3% to 4% between the two periods—26% relative growth—and reached nearly 5% in September. Microsoft Copilot fell from 7% to 6%.

Bank of America’s Erica illustrates how AI platforms now compete with banks’ own assistants. Roughly 4% of consumers used Erica for personal tasks in July-September, with access limited to the bank’s customers. General-purpose AI platforms can reach customers across banks, giving them a broader potential audience for financial guidance.

AI Replaces Familiar Ways of Getting Money Help

AI is becoming a substitute for familiar ways of getting financial help. Four in 10 consumers who use it for money management say it fully or mostly replaced their previous approach. That puts money management alongside health at the top of the activities where users report this shift, ahead of shopping at 32%.

More users are also making a complete switch. The share who say AI fully replaced their old approach to money management rose from 14% in September-November 2025 to 16% in July-September 2026.

The shift is strongest among power users. Nearly half (49%) of those who use AI for money management have fully or mostly replaced their previous approach, compared with 32% of mainstream users. Millennials are the most likely generation to make this change, at 44%, versus 28% of baby boomers and seniors.

The competitive risk for banks is losing influence before a transaction ever happens. An AI assistant can help set a customer’s expectations about fees, credit terms or product choices before the bank has a chance to explain its offer.

Interest in Autonomous Money Management Fades

Consumers are pulling back from letting AI manage their money independently. Interest fell from 20% in September-November 2025 to 16% in July-September 2026, a decline of 21%. The growing role of AI in financial guidance has yet to drive greater demand to hand over control.

Consumers are also less interested in AI taking action for them in other parts of daily life. Interest fell across all nine activities. The share wanting an assistant to handle at least one dropped from 72% to 65%.

Financial decisions remain a lower priority for autonomous assistance than everyday planning or shopping. Each of those activities drew interest from 23% of consumers in July-September, compared with 16% for money management, which ranked last among the nine activities.

Power users are still the clearest audience for autonomous money management, but interest has declined even among these enthusiasts. The share of power users who want an assistant to manage their money fell from 50% to 41%, although it remained more than twice the 20% seen among mainstream users.

Younger consumers remain more open to direct AI money management. Gen Z leads at 24%, compared with 6% of baby boomers and seniors. The older group’s interest fell from 10%, even as its use of AI for financial information grew.

For banks and AI platforms, the priority is to make financial guidance useful before asking customers to delegate decisions. Clear explanations, advice grounded in account data and easy access to human support can strengthen that service. Consumers who want an assistant to act should be able to choose that separately and set limits on its authority.

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PYMNTS Intelligence is the leading provider of information on the consumer trends driving innovation in consumer finance, digital payments and financial inclusion. To stay up to date, subscribe to our newsletters and read our in-depth reports.

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Methodology

“The Money Prompt: Consumers Want Advice Without Giving Up Control” draws on the PYMNTS Intelligence monthly Consumer AI Benchmark Series. This edition pools 31,447 responses from U.S. adults across 13 surveys fielded from September 2025 to September 2026. Data are balanced to the U.S. adult population by age, gender, education and income. The report examines consumers’ use of Gen AI for money management and interest in autonomous financial assistance. Comparisons combine monthly weighted results; percentage changes are relative differences calculated from unrounded values.