When finance-app analytics cross the line between helpful and creepy

• Key insight: Just because apps can categorize your spending and provide feedback doesn't mean that those insights are always helpful, or even welcome. Some empathy needs to be built into their design.
• Supporting data: JD Power data recently found 27% of consumers said that they found AI somewhat or significantly helpful in managing their personal finances.
• Forward look: There is a fine line between getting the info you want without feeling shame, or at least pairing a provoking insight with a next step.
  

I've come to terms with opening my bank app to see the balance. It doesn't scare me like it did in my 20s.

But about a week ago, after reading something about a personal finance agent, I decided to poke around and discover what else the app would tell me. And well, it had things to say. I clicked into the July spend analysis and one number stood out: My Uber Eats topped $275 across 12 transactions. Busted.

I make breakfast and cook a few times a week, but I tend to order in here and there to avoid Los Angeles traffic or deal with my "rustic" rent-controlled kitchen (ahem, I duct tape my freezer shut). That month I spent more because my dog died and I didn't feel up to cooking. I already knew planning meals would save money. It's a reveal that doesn't help me.

I don't hide from my spending. But I don't usually think about the lump sum of smaller charges. Ditto how many dog beds I bought on Amazon for my Maltipoo, Benedict, the year before he died. Fifty-one at around $13 apiece if you're wondering (I wasn't but Amazon told me) and I'd do it again. He had kidney issues and I share a laundry unit. But that number still makes me sad.

These reveals got me thinking: At a time when more apps are showing us our financial data, when do insights cross the line of doing more harm than good? Certainly, there's emotion entangled in some of these unexpected findings. Who hasn't teared up when Google Photos surfaces a memory of something lost: a dog, a relationship, a friend? 

A more extreme version of this concept in banking backfired in Europe. Hard. For a handful of years, digital bank Monzo sent its customers Spotify Wrapped-esque recaps of their annual spending categories with attempts at playful messaging, including this year. Some bank customers found it fun. Others found it awful. As The Guardian reported: "The digital bank Monzo has been accused of overstepping the mark by using the data it holds to tell one customer with a past eating disorder that she eats a lot of fast food, spends 'more than most' on Just Eat takeaways, and had banished her life goals thanks to her spending choices."

For those who want some banter, there is Cleo, an app that can roast users for their spending decisions. Many of us, I imagine, would prefer deciding what kind of spending recap we get because what you spend is different from what you listen to. Sure, you may play a Lily Allen song on repeat after a breakup but it's not quite the same as seeing the amount you paid tied to it — the therapy bills, the late-night ice cream runs, the extra yoga classes. Moreover, that kind of insight doesn't solve anything. Add it to the growing too late pile.

What I find easier to take in is a stat tied to a group, something that widens the lens. Across bills linked by more than 100,000 Atomic users, the average annualized spend is $941. That is likely an understated figure as consumers may only link some of their bills, such as Netflix or a utilities bill. But unlike my Uber Eats spend, this number offers a direction. If you are spending around $1,000 per year, it is worth checking to see whether some chunk of the recurring payment tab is for something you barely use and, potentially, canceling or pausing it.

To be sure, I am not arguing for people to skip Netflix to save a little money. But it highlights an important tension: There is a fine line between getting the info you want without feeling shame, or at least pairing a provoking insight with a next step.

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In a recent interview, Frida Leibowitz, founder and CEO of fintech startup Debbie Rewards, highlighted her money approach that embraces goals versus failures. "Instead of thinking about how to not spend or not do certain things, you think about how to add money to your savings actively, or pay down specific debt," Leibowitz told me. "You think about the dos, as opposed to the don'ts."

That's an uplifting reason to login to an app. 

It's no surprise that JD Power data recently found 27% of consumers said that they found AI somewhat or significantly helpful in managing their personal finances. It's a different approach than a spending recap. Likely because with an LLM, people are asking the questions themselves. Among those consumers who are financially vulnerable or stressed, the number increased to 48%.

On that last stat, Jim Miller, vice president of financial services at JD Power, told American Banker, "They're generally not the ones going into a bank wanting to talk to somebody about their financial condition. It's kind of like not wanting to go to the doctor and tell them you don't exercise. The anonymity of AI would be very beneficial to those clients. They don't have the embarrassment."

Another thing that could help: simple suggestions. Imagine if the revelation of my $275 Uber Eats bill came with an option to cap next month's orders, or to move money into savings instead. That's more useful than sticker shock alone.

Empathy in design only matters more as money insights get served up on LLMs, fintech apps and bank apps. Reminders of spend patterns aren't for everyone. And for some, it could provoke something they wished to never encounter again. For banks, skip the Monzo-style recaps, supply actions instead and save the banter for consumers who ask for it. The alternative? People stop opening the app that offends.

As for my Uber Eats, I'd like to say I'll cut back. But that will become likelier when I move. So, for now, I'll just avoid the insight.