April 15, 2026
[New Report] How AI is shifting customer expectations for fintech products
Today, Plaid published The State of Intelligent Finance: AI, Agents and Trust, a research report revealing just how quickly consumer behavior and expectations are shifting as AI becomes more ingrained in the way people manage their finances. What we expected to find was growing curiosity. What we found instead was meaningful adoption and rising expectations.
Consumers already expect AI-powered experiences from you
More than half of Americans used AI to manage their finances in the past 12 months, and among those users, 86% say it helps them better understand their finances. This is echoed by Perplexity, an AI-powered answer engine, which says 75% of its users ask finance questions every month.
The takeaway is that consumers want smarter financial tools, and they're already using whatever is available to fill the gap. In fact, half of US consumers say managing money without AI will soon feel outdated. Many are already turning to general-purpose AI assistants to answer questions that their banking or fintech apps haven't addressed. This trendline shows a clear opportunity for fintech applications to step into these evolving expectations.
What does this mean for fintech products?
The best financial apps of the next decade will improve outcomes for users using intelligent finance and AI. Consumers say they expect AI to save them time (60%), reduce financial stress (58%), and take the guesswork out of financial decisions (53%). The areas with the most opportunity are the same ones fintech first tackled: savings, investing, budgeting, and debt management. These remain the most pressing financial challenges for most people, and AI makes it possible to address them in ways that are faster, smarter, and more tailored to each individual.
Here's what this evolution means in practice for builders of fintech applications:
1. Move beyond analytics to personalized guidance.
Displaying account balances and transaction history is just the start. Consumers want their financial apps to interpret that data and tell them something meaningful, whether that's a heads-up that they're overspending in a category or a nudge toward a better savings rate. Among Americans already using AI for their finances, 64% say it improved their ability to evaluate financial products, and 53% say it helped them manage day-to-day spending. The opportunity isn't just to show people their money; it's to help them make better decisions with it.
2. Be explicit about how AI is working for your customers.
Consumers are open to letting AI do more on their behalf, but trust has to be earned and maintained. Our research found that 75% of consumers say it's important to know when AI is being used in financial decisions, and 60% say they would trust it more if they understood the reasoning behind it. That means building AI explanations, clear disclosures, and easy override options directly into the product experience, not burying them in settings or terms of service.
3. Meet the new financial consumer before someone else does.
Dedicated financial management apps have traditionally served highly engaged, motivated power users. But something is shifting. More people are turning to general AI chatbots (35%) and AI-powered search engines (30%) for financial guidance than to dedicated financial planning apps (13%). That's a signal: a much broader group of everyday consumers is seeking financial guidance on their own. For fintechs and banks, that's an expansion of the addressable market. The opportunity is to bring intelligent guidance into the products these new users already trust and meet them at the start of their journey.
4. Keep humans in the loop. Your customers expect it.
AI works best in financial services when it crunches the numbers and surfaces insights, freeing advisors and support teams to focus on the decisions that actually require judgment and empathy. And consumers agree: 74% say they will always want the option to review important financial decisions made by AI. Building that oversight in isn't a limitation; it's what makes customers comfortable enough to engage more deeply.
Where to start
The shift to smarter financial experiences is already underway, and the gap between consumer expectations and what most apps currently offer is real. The good news is that most fintechs and banks already have what they need to start: strong customer relationships, transaction history, and behavioral data that AI can turn into genuinely useful guidance.
What it takes is connecting that data in the right ways, building experiences around outcomes rather than features, and earning and maintaining consumer trust.
That's what Plaid has been building for more than a decade. From powering real-time financial insights to developing our first transaction foundation model for finance, we provide the infrastructure that makes intelligent financial experiences possible at scale.
If you're thinking about what intelligent finance looks like for your customers, we're here to help.