Revolut follows Starling with AI agent as tech arms race heats up
Revolut has waded into the AI arms race with the debut of its personal finance assistant as fintech firms race to beef up the tech in their all-in-one super apps.
The $75bn digital banking giant has launched AI by Revolut – a financial assistant embedded into its app.
The chatbot provides spending insights, investment updates and gives users the availability to plan a trip through a conversation within the firm’s mobile app.
Revolut said the financial assistant would have a zero data retention policy, with no personal information stored by third-party partners. The bank did not disclose which AI vendors it had launched the assistant with.
It marks the latest shot fired in the AI arms race engulfing the banking sector as incumbents and challengers rush to clock the tech’s benefits.
Starling beat Revolut to the punch last month with the launch of its agentic AI financial assistant, providing similar day-to-day finance features. The assistant was built with Google Gemini, running on the Google Cloud platform.
Harriet Rees, Starling’s chief information officer and the Treasury’s ‘AI Champion,’ said: “No idea is too bold” following the launch.
Natwest also debuted its agentic AI assistant last month for users on its banking app.
Revolut and Starling square off against incumbents in AI battle
Traditional banking giants have also quickly recognised the need to keep at pace with AI.
“This may be the year the market makes up its mind that banks are likely to be significant beneficiaries of AI, particularly as relates to forward efficiency,” analysts at UBS said in January.
They added that banks would be “pressed hard this year” to share a “coherent financial story for AI implementation: what is being spent now and what it means for the future shape of expenses overall and headcount in particular.”
Each of Natwest, Lloyds and HSBC occupy a spot on the top 20 Evident AI index, which serves as a global benchmark for AI integration in the banking sector.
Partnerships have also dominated the sphere with Barclays partnering with Microsoft AI in a tie-up set to deploy AI tools to 100,000 bankers, Natwest sealing an agreement with OpenAI and HSBC partnering with French tech powerhouse Mistral.
Lloyds – which faced a tech bungle last month leading to the bank forking out compensation for thousands of customers – has put its top boss and senior executives through a six-month AI bootcamp as part of its commitment to embed the tech across operations.
In December, Monzo, Natwest and Santander were among the first group to take part in the Financial Conduct Authority’s AI Live testing initiative, which gave firms the opportunity to access tailored support from the watchdog to roll out “safe and responsible” AI.