SAN FRANCISCO — Anthropic is rolling out a personal finance feature that lets users connect bank and credit card accounts to its Claude artificial intelligence chatbot, while seeking input from financial services firms on how the tool could work alongside licensed professionals.
The company announced the feature Nov. 5, saying it would begin reaching U.S. subscribers on Claude’s Pro, Max and Ultra plans this week. Access is being introduced gradually, according to a company support article.
Called Personal Finance, the feature uses account balances and transactions to answer questions in everyday language, Anthropic said. Users can ask where their money went, whether spending exceeds income or how much their annual percentage rate has cost them.
What Tool Can Also Do
The tool also can produce weekly spending charts, calendars of payment due dates and dashboards displaying financial figures selected by users. It explains unfamiliar financial terms but is not designed to provide investment advice, according to the company.
Anthropic said the feature is read-only and cannot move, manage or invest money. It carries no advertisements or sponsored recommendations, and the company offers no credit cards, loans or savings accounts of its own.
Account connections are provided through Plaid and require users to sign in to their financial institution through Plaid. Users can disconnect accounts at any time, Anthropic said.
Plaid Chief Technology Officer Will Robinson said in a Nov. 5 blog post that the connections allow Claude to tailor answers to users’ actual financial circumstances. Plaid has found most consumers are willing to share personal information with Claude “when they see clear benefit,” he said.
Similar Move by OpenAI
The rollout follows a similar move by OpenAI, which announced in May that select ChatGPT users could connect financial accounts through Plaid, view a financial dashboard and ask questions grounded in their account information.
Anthropic said it wants banks, wealth managers and other financial services companies to help shape how Claude could support larger financial decisions.
“Personal Finance is a first step,” the company said in its product update. “For life’s bigger money decisions, we think people are best served by Claude working alongside the licensed professionals and regulated firms they trust.”
The company said it is exploring how to make that collaboration possible within Claude.
