OpenAI launched ChatGPT, a personal finance tool that allows users to connect their bank and investment accounts for personalized financial analysis. Currently, this feature is only available to US Pro users and supports over 12,000 financial institutions through Plaid. In the past six months, OpenAI has acquired Roi and Hiro Finance to expand its presence in the financial services sector, with over 200 million users asking financial questions on ChatGPT monthly. However, the day before the product launch, OpenAI was sued for allegedly sharing conversation data with Meta and Google without user consent, sparking a crisis of trust and privacy controversies. AI companies are now vying to enter high-value data sectors such as health and finance, and the competition for "vertical super assistants" has begun.
Article author and source: GeekPark
From helping you write copy to wanting to help you manage your finances, the difference between AI chatbots and those that offer assistance isn't technology, but trust.
On May 15th, OpenAI launched a new feature that has left many feeling both excited and uneasy – the ChatGPT personal finance tool. Simply put, you can now directly connect your bank account and investment account to ChatGPT.
This feature is currently only available for preview to ChatGPT Pro users in the United States (costing $200 per month). OpenAI connects accounts through financial data service provider Plaid, supporting over 12,000 financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, Robinhood, American Express, and Capital One.
It sounds wonderful. But the comments section practically exploded— would you really dare to give your bank account to an AI ?!
01 What does your "AI Private CFO" look like?
Let's first see what this tool can do.
Users can access the "Finances" option in the ChatGPT sidebar, click "Start," or directly type "@Finances, connect my accounts" in the dialog box. ChatGPT will then guide you to connect your bank account via Plaid. The entire authorization process is essentially the same as linking a bank card to apps like Venmo or Robinhood—Plaid's tokenized authentication mechanism means that ChatGPT itself will not have access to your bank password.
Once connected, ChatGPT will take a few minutes to sync and categorize your financial data, then generate a visual financial dashboard. This dashboard covers a wide range of information: current and savings account balances, transaction history, spending details broken down by category, monthly recurring subscriptions, upcoming bills, payroll records, portfolio performance, and debt information such as credit card debt and mortgage payments.
But the dashboard is just the beginning. The truly interesting part lies in "conversational financial management." Unlike traditional budgeting tools like Mint and YNAB, ChatGPT doesn't require you to look at charts, browse categories, or manually set budgets. You simply ask questions in natural language, and it provides answers based on your real data.
A comparison of financial issues before (left) and after (right) using personal financial data clearly shows that the issues are more comprehensive, planned, and targeted. | Image source: OpenAI
OpenAI has provided several example scenarios: You can ask, "Have I been spending more money lately? What changes have occurred?" ChatGPT will then analyze your transaction history to understand your spending trends.
You can say, "Help me make a plan to buy a house locally within five years," and it will calculate it based on your income, savings rate, and current debt. You can even tell it, "I still owe my parents some money" or "I plan to buy a car early next year," and ChatGPT will store this information in its "financial memory," taking this context into account in subsequent conversations.
This is a completely different experience from answering financial questions on ChatGPT before. Previously, if you asked it "How should I save money to buy a house?", you'd get a bunch of generic financial textbook advice. Now it can see your bank account balance, monthly spending structure, investment returns, and debt ratio, and the solutions it provides are no longer meaningless platitudes like "I suggest you save 20% of your salary each month."
OpenAI also revealed its next steps: it will soon support data access from Intuit, allowing users to use ChatGPT to analyze the specific tax implications of selling a particular stock or assess the probability of their credit card application being approved.
OpenAI aims to transform ChatGPT from "helping you look up a concept" into "helping you make decisions."
02 Two acquisitions, three strategic moves
OpenAI did this not on a whim.
Its strategic planning had actually been underway for over half a year. In October 2025, OpenAI acquired the personal finance application Roi, whose founder, Sujith Vishwajith, subsequently joined OpenAI.
In April 2026, OpenAI acquired another personal finance startup, Hiro Finance, bringing founder Ethan Bloch and his entire team into the company. Hiro positioned itself as an "AI personal CFO" and had managed over $1 billion in assets for its users. Bloch had previously founded the automated savings app Digit, which was acquired in 2021 for over $200 million.
Two acquisitions, two fintech veterans, and six months—OpenAI is clearly building a "financial commando team" in a well-planned manner.
The data driving all of this is astonishing. OpenAI revealed that over 200 million people ask finance-related questions on ChatGPT every month —from budget management to how to cut expenses. These users were essentially using a "general chatbot" for financial management, but previously ChatGPT's responses lacked personalized data support.
Now, with Plaid account connectivity and the enhanced reasoning capabilities of the GPT-5.5 model, ChatGPT's goal is clear: to evolve from a general assistant that can "talk about anything" into a "super assistant" that truly understands your financial situation.
OpenAI has already run this route once.
In January of this year, it launched ChatGPT Health, allowing users to connect their medical records with health apps such as Apple Health and MyFitnessPal. Official data shows that over 230 million people ask health questions on ChatGPT every week. From health to finance, OpenAI is transforming ChatGPT into an entry point covering all "high-value decision-making" scenarios in life.
03 The privacy storm arrives faster than the product itself.
The problem is that financial planning isn't like writing copy. You're not just handing out a prompt; you're presenting your complete financial profile.
After the feature was released, the reaction on social media was almost unanimously skeptical. One person commented on Twitter, "What normal person would willingly hand over this level of access to OpenAI?" Others directly brought up past grievances: "You guys were just sued in a class-action lawsuit for secretly sharing ChatGPT conversation data with Google and Facebook."
This isn't unfounded. Just one day before the launch of this financial management feature, a new class-action lawsuit was filed in California federal court, accusing OpenAI of embedding Meta Pixel and Google Analytics tracking code in the ChatGPT website. The lawsuit alleges that, without users' knowledge, chat topics, user IDs, email addresses, and other information were transmitted to Meta and Google for targeted advertising. The complaint states that many users on ChatGPT discuss highly private topics such as finance, health, and law.
Being sued for secretly sharing user conversation data while simultaneously launching a new product that requires users to connect their bank accounts—this timing is almost a PR disaster.
OpenAI is clearly aware of the trust issue. In its announcement, it repeatedly emphasized that ChatGPT cannot perform any operations on user accounts, nor can it see the complete account number; it can only read balances, transaction records, portfolios, and liability information. Data will be deleted within 30 days after disconnection. Users can also view and delete the financial "memories" that ChatGPT holds.
However, one detail is worth noting—the system has an optional switch called "Improve the model for everyone." If a user turns this on, their financial conversation data will be used to train the AI model. Although this switch is off by default, its very existence sends a signal:
In theory, your financial data can be used as training material within OpenAI's system.
04 AI companies are flocking to "high-value data"
ChatGPT's development as a financial management tool, viewed within a broader context, represents a collective shift within the AI industry.
The era of general chatbots is coming to an end, and the war for "vertical super assistants" has begun.
OpenAI launched its healthcare product in January and its wealth management product in May. In early May, Anthropic released ten professional AI agents for the financial industry, directly targeting the banking, insurance, and asset management sectors. Its data sources include Moody's, S&P Capital IQ, and Morningstar. Following the announcement, FactSet's stock price fell 8% that day. Perplexity also launched "Computer for Professional Finance" around the same time, targeting professional investment research teams and supporting access to data sources such as PitchBook and Daloopa, providing 35 pre-set financial workflows.
Interestingly, Perplexity's financial products have recently begun supporting users connecting to brokerage accounts via Plaid—using the same infrastructure as ChatGPT. This means that Plaid is becoming the underlying conduit for the "AI-driven wealth management" era, much like Stripe is for online payments.
However, the different approaches taken by each company are also quite distinct. OpenAI is taking the consumer (C-end) approach, aiming to bring every ordinary person's bank account into ChatGPT; Anthropic and Perplexity are taking the business (B-end) approach, aiming to enable financial professionals to use AI to replace some of the functions of Bloomberg Terminal.
However, regardless of whether it's B2B or B2C, the core logic is the same: whoever can obtain the most private and valuable user data will occupy the entry point in the next stage of AI .
Health data, financial data, legal data—these are areas that AI companies are collectively targeting not because AI has suddenly become good at financial management, but because these scenarios naturally require personalization, naturally involve high-frequency interaction, and naturally generate a willingness to pay.
05 The Ultimate Test of the "Super Assistant"
Returning to ChatGPT's release, from a product logic perspective, it's actually quite well done: the Plaid connection ensures a basic level of security, read permissions rather than operation permissions reduce risk, and the 30-day data deletion provides an exit mechanism. OpenAI also stated that it will soon support Intuit connectivity, allowing users to analyze the tax impact of stock sales and assess the probability of credit card application approval.
But there's a huge gap between making a good product and gaining user trust.
Sam Altman envisions ChatGPT as a "personal super assistant," covering every aspect of life, from writing and searching to health, finance, programming, and shopping. This vision is undeniably ambitious. However, the grander the vision, the higher the demand for trust. OpenAI's track record on privacy issues does not inspire complete confidence.
A comment on Slashdot put it bluntly: "Handing over your bank account to a hallucinatory chatbot? Since when can AI-generated financial advice be written into a disclaimer?"
While this statement is harsh, it does hit the nail on the head. There is a fundamental difference between AI-powered financial tools and traditional financial advisors—human financial advisors are subject to financial regulation, are licensed, and have legal responsibilities; while ChatGPT's terms of service clearly state that it does not provide investment advice and does not assume any financial consequences.
When a tool looks like a financial advisor, speaks like a financial advisor, and even knows more about your spending data than most financial advisors—but is legally nothing, this is itself a gray area that needs serious discussion.
OpenAI says it will first gather feedback from its Pro user base before deciding whether to extend the service to Plus users. This is a smart strategy—using the most willing hardcore users to "test the waters." But if the trust issue isn't resolved, a larger user base may never materialize.
ChatGPT wants to manage your money, and technically it's ready.
But are you ready? This is a question that everyone in the AI era may have to answer.
Geek Question
Would you be willing to connect your bank account to an AI chatbot? Why?
