Neobank MoneyLion plans to launch a search feature powered by ChatGPT that allows consumers to search for transactions, offers and products on the platform’s finance marketplace, CEO Dee Choubey said.
The move, Choubey said, aligns with the neobank’s mission to bring personal financial management to the masses. And using artificial intelligence to achieve that goal has been embedded in the firm’s strategy since its launch, he said.
“AI was in our DNA in 2013,” said Choubey. “Our first models were predictive models on when consumers will have money and when they'll run out of money. We built a whole digital banking strategy around that.”
While ChatGPT has generated widespread interest around its potential implications on the workforce and possible use cases across industries, Choubey said tools like the popular text generator will eventually become table stakes in the finance sector.
“But what’s not table stakes is the proprietary data set, and that's what we have,” said Choubey, who did not give a launch date for the ChatGPT integration.
MoneyLion’s insight into consumers’ balance sheets and investing decisions helps the neobank pair them with third-party products through its marketplace, Engine by MoneyLion, he said.
“It creates a really rich, permissible data set to be able to offer them the best product,” he added.
MoneyLion, which launched as a personal finance and lending platform, has since expanded its services to include digital banking and investing.
The neobank’s 2022 acquisition of finance marketplace Even Financial, which it rebranded as Engine in March, helped the neobank evolve into a financial matchmaker of sorts, allowing it to pair borrowers with lenders.
“Our growth is going to come by taking those internal tools and democratizing them and providing it to everybody on the enterprise network,” Choubey said. “That makes us part neobank, part data company. I think that's the future.”
MoneyLion has expanded the platform’s network to include more than 1,000 enterprise partners. The platform provides a source of commission revenue to the neobank.
“The neobank strategy is an important strategy for us, but it's not the only game in town,” said Choubey, on the fintech’s decision to broaden its offerings.
Another deal has helped the firm trim advertising expenses. MoneyLion’s purchase of content platform Malka Media in 2021 has enabled the fintech to migrate its marketing operations in house.
“We have a studio that allows us to produce any number of financial and money adjacent content,” Choubey said.
MoneyLion reported its customer acquisition costs were under $15 million in the first quarter of 2023.
The company added 1.3 million customers during the quarter ending March 31, growing its total user numbers to 34 million, MoneyLion reported.
Choubey said he is confident the neobank will hit positive cash flow by the end of the year.
“Despite the challenging market, those are oftentimes the best times to build,” he said. “We’ll have our first profitable year this year, while delivering growth to our stakeholders.”
