The news: Visa debuted AI Financial Assistant, a value-added service that lets banks offer conversational financial guidance through their mobile banking apps, per a press release.

Connected cardholders can query the assistant for financial spending advice, financial activity questions, and basic demands such as locking a card or setting alerts.

How we got here: Visa is leaning into value-added services as a lever for growth. The category’s revenues grew 27% YoY from in Q2 2026, per Visa’s earnings. 

Why this matters: Banks need robust conversational financial assistants to safeguard against their consumers going to other providers and platforms. 

• Plaid teamed up with Perplexity to offer financial consultation services through the chatbot.
• OpenAI acquired Hiro and Roi to bolster its financial services offerings. 
• Revolut rolled out an in-app financial virtual assistant for customers.
• Starling launched a Gemini-backed virtual assistant in March.

The urgency for banking and payment providers to offer these services is also growing:

• Over 66% of surveyed US adults who have used genAI are seeking financial advice, per Credit Karma. 
• And 85% of adults are open to sharing even more financial data with their bank if there was a clear AI value proposition, per Oliver Wyman’s “Known Unknowns” report.

Implications for banks: AI integrations within banking mobile apps may help to retain Gen Z members who are looking for ways to spend strategically under increased financial pressure. 

Personalized insights via chatbots can help deliver more value to these consumers trying to navigate affordability concerns.

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