When you hear the word AI, chances are the first thing that comes to mind are tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Quillbot. You type a prompt, ask how to write a job application letter or send a friendly email to a colleague, and with just a snap of a finger, voila! You get a readily made result that you can copy and paste.

But did you know that AI is not just for writing emails, doing schoolwork, or writing tasks? It is actually everywhere now even in how we manage our money. From budgeting and saving to investing and borrowing cash, AI has slowly entered the world of personal finance and I bet you didn’t realize it soon enough.

What you’ll learn:

Can AI create an excel budget tracker?
Can AI teach you how to start investing with limited money?
Can AI do compounding interest and compute for the Future Value?
Can AI replace financial planning?

Can AI help us understand and manage our money?

Since AI is the talk of the town nowadays, I decided to put it to a test and here’s what I discovered:

1. Can AI create a budget tracker?

I asked ChatGPT to create a comprehensive budgeting template. I requested to include the excel formulae, pie charts to show progress tracking for savings and investment goals, and to use the PHP currency. Here’s what I got:

It wasn’t as visually appealing as I wanted it to be so I tried again. I asked for a more detailed and specific one: 12-month Budget, Savings, Investments, and Net Worth Tracker in Excel format. Here’s what I got:

Still didn’t reach my level of expectation and so, I started to create my own budget tracker. Conclusion? While AI is a powerful tool for structure and ideas, it still needs human judgment, human creativity, and lived experience especially when it comes to personal finance.

2. Can AI teach you how to start investing with limited money?

This is a good question. I asked “How to start investing with limited money?”, and to be fair, as someone who understands personal finance, the long list of advice makes sense.

But what I noticed is that AI assumes you already know the terms like index funds, equity funds, balanced or bond funds. If you don’t, the advice might sound great, but you’re not really learning how or why it works.

The same is true with the suggestion above. Setting ₱500 every payday is a great advice but this may not be suitable for everyone. We all have different lifestyles, salaries, financial responsibilities and so ₱500 may be too much for someone with a minimum salary while it may be too little for someone who actually needs to fund ₱50 million nest egg within the next 20 years to achieve financial freedom.

In short, AI can’t give you a tailored-fit financial plan because it doesn’t know important financial aspects of your life like your net worth, income, balance sheet, risk tolerance, and your lifestyle. But perhaps it can give you a more solid financial advice if you lay out your numbers and let AI do the computing. Let’s head on to no. 3.

3. Can AI do compounding interest?

Let’s use a simplified example. If you invest P5,000 per month (P60,000 annually) from age 40 to 60 in an investment that gives off a return of 7% annually, how much will your investment be on the 60th year (assuming net of tax, annuity due)?

Below is a sample computation I use during my financial seminars:

ChatGPT’s answer with computation:

You deposited ₱60,000 at the start of each year, from age 40 to 60 inclusive.

That’s 21 deposits, not 20.

So the formula becomes: $FV = PMT \times \frac{(1+r)^n – 1}{r} \times (1+r)$ FV=PMT×r(1+r)n−1×(1+r)

Where:

PMT = ₱60,000
r = 0.07
n = 21 (because age 40–60 = 21 years)

📌 Final Value:

$FV = ₱2,880,344$ FV=₱2,880,344

Was the answer same as mine? Yes! The future value of ₱2,880,344 is the same in both my answer and with ChatGPTt’s. I guess it’s safe to conclude that when exact facts and information are given, AI can help compute complex formulae that neither a calculator nor a human brain can instantly solve.

Can AI replace financial planning?

Nope. AI cannot fully replace financial planning. We’ve already proven through this article that AI can compute complex ratios, generate projections, and analyze data quickly but it still lacks the human judgment we need for real-life financial decisions.

Financial planning doesnt only involve numbers because it requires understanding a person’s values, goals, and life circumstances. A human financial planner can ask the right questions and provide emotional support when you enter marriage, have children, or make career shifts. AI can’t. In short, AI is definitely a powerful tool that can assist with financial planning but it can never replace the human touch and the personalized guidance we need.