The news: Rocket Money launched agentic virtual assistant Rowan to alert customers about personal finance tasks and enable them to direct the app to handle the task.

How it works: The assistant, which is built into the Rocket Money app, monitors user finances and can take action on their behalf (e.g., cancel subscriptions, negotiate recurring bills, and set up automated transfers). It texts customers when there’s a to-do item, and customers can respond in natural language.

Rowan is currently available to select subscribers through a new Premium Plus tier, with broader availability planned later this year. 

Implications for banks: Historically, few consumers have cared deeply about personal finance tools and even fewer about virtual assistants. But the bar has gone up for innovation in both bank chatbots and personal finance features.

In our US Mobile Banking Emerging Features Benchmark 2025:

• The highest-ranked personal finance feature was “see recurring charges,” a Rocket Money staple (34% rated it "extremely valuable”). It fared even better among Gen Zers and millennials (39% and 41%, respectively).
• Chatbot features were the highest-ranked customer service features. “Notifications when agent responds" ranked highest (31%), though few banks offer the feature.

Agentic assistants designed correctly could increase consumer interest by completing tasks instead of just answering questions. Traditional Q&A chatbots have reached their limit: Starling Bank, for example, is expanding its Gemini-powered assistant with AI features that automate tasks like generating savings plans. And it recently extended the tool to small business customers.

But design matters. A Rocket Money-style assistant that alerts customers to non-urgent personal finance tasks is likely to be more annoying than helpful. The next generation of virtual assistants must strike a balance between executing banking tasks at a customer’s direction and pestering them to use it.

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