There's a seductive promise circulating that artificial intelligence will be your financial savior.
The idea is that a personal AI assistant will manage your money, curbing your worst spending impulses and transforming you into a model of fiscal prudence.
You'll simply ask your AI agent if you can afford a new gadget or a lavish vacation, and it will guide you to the right choice.
This is a fantasy.
We Already Have the Tools
The truth is, we already have the tools for better financial habits.
Automated savings and investing platforms, along with hundreds of budgeting apps, have been available for years.
Yet, despite these innovations, the financial landscape for the average person is worsening.
Total consumer debt has surged. Credit card debt continues to climb.
The "Buy Now, Pay Later" industry is experiencing explosive growth, with projections to become a market worth over $167 billion by 2032.
Technology Amplifies Behavior
Technology is an amplifier of human behavior. It magnifies what is already there.
The most significant capital investments in AI are not aimed at helping you save, but at encouraging you to spend more.
AI is being deployed to create intensely personalized advertisements that tap into your deepest desires and motivations.
It fuels dynamic pricing models that adjust in real-time to charge you the maximum you are willing to pay.
AI is Built to Make You Spend
Retailers are harnessing AI-powered programmatic advertising that can analyze your online behavior in milliseconds to deliver the most effective ad at the most opportune moment.
For those who are already financially disciplined, AI may offer some benefits in optimizing savings and investments.
If you enjoy tracking your finances, an AI agent can help you delve even deeper into the data.
But for the majority of people - including the 85% who don't really track their spending - AI will become another powerful tool for corporations to drive consumption and debt.
It will be the engine behind an even more pervasive consumer culture, making it easier than ever to spend money you don't have.
Donβt Wait
Do not wait for technology to rescue your finances.
It will not.
The responsibility lies with you to build the internal mental frameworks and systems for sound financial management today.
AI will undoubtedly leverage your financial habits, but it will not fix them.
If you are not in control of your money, someone else will be.
Water has a great wisdom, for it is a sustains of life at one time, but if it overflows, it becomes a cause of destruction at another time. β Likewise, money: if a servant possesses it in moderation, it sustains his livelihood and frees him for the worship of his Lord, but if it overwhelms him, it destroys his religion
Qadi Abu Bakr (468β543 AH / 1076β1148 CE)in Qanun al-Ta'wil
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