The WEALTHTECH Book

Personal Financial Intelligence – AI and the Future of Money Management

By Catherine Flax

CEO, Pefin

With all the innovation that has occurred in the lives of consumers because of artificial intelligence (AI), very little has been done to meaningfully change how people manage their personal finances. As a society, we will benefit from approaching personal finance in a fundamentally different way to motivate good long-term habits. Fear of bankruptcy, hope of having enough money for retirement, inability to plan to put the kids through college, counting on the stock market rising is for many people the current – but wrong – way to address these important issues. Hope is not a strategy.

We can now impact the way we interact with money, rooted in a deep understanding of the complex equation that is an individual’s financial situation, their goals, the economy, markets, tax rules and many other factors. A new model exists for how people can have an informed relationship with their finances, and take control of this important aspect of life. A new form of information and education can be economically adopted by the public at large, resulting in the acquisition of new habits. The challenge of economic illiteracy that plagues most of society – even our most educated citizens – can be addressed with AI. Today, only individuals with substantial net worth can access the services of professional financial advisors to approximate this level of service, but even those insights are not as ...