Starling Bank has launched an innovative new feature, Spending Intelligence, which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help customers gain deeper insights into their financial habits. This UK-first allows users to interact with their personal spending data using everyday language — enabling questions like “How much did I spend on groceries last month?” or “What were my charity donations last year?” to be answered instantly with detailed analysis.
This marks the first time a UK bank has empowered users to use in-app AI and natural language processing (NLP) to directly explore their spending patterns. Spending Intelligence is just the beginning of Starling’s broader strategy to integrate AI across all customer touchpoints.
Helping Customers Be ‘Good With Money’
Spending Intelligence is designed to address a major challenge in personal finance: understanding exactly where money goes. It forms part of Starling’s long-term goal to help customers take full control of their financial lives and turn money management into a daily habit.
“At Starling, we believe knowledge is power — and it’s the first step toward taking charge of your finances,” said Harriet Rees, Chief Information Officer at Starling Bank. “Now, customers can use AI to explore their financial behaviour in a way that’s intuitive, personalised, and actionable.”
How Spending Intelligence Works
The new feature enhances Starling’s existing Spending tab, which already breaks down customer transactions by merchant and over 50 customisable categories — such as ‘Bills’, ‘Transport’, ‘Groceries’, ‘Holidays’, and ‘Weddings’.
The AI tool sits prominently at the top of the Spending tab. Customers can type or speak their queries directly into the app. Starling also offers smart, personalised suggestions based on individual spending behaviours. For example:
- A frequent traveller may be prompted to explore travel-related expenses
- A daily commuter might be shown insights on public transport costs
- A regular diner can review spending on restaurants and takeaways
Once a question is asked or a prompt selected, the app presents a clear breakdown of expenses, supported by visual analytics and trend graphs — helping users better understand their financial habits over time.
“Starling revolutionised banking with our app-first approach,” added Rees. “Now, we’re doing it again with AI. We believe everyone can be good with money, and this tool is designed to make that journey easier by allowing people to interact with their finances in a way that feels natural.”
Built with Privacy and Performance in Mind
Spending Intelligence is powered by Google’s Gemini models, running securely on Google Cloud. This setup allows Starling to accurately interpret the context and intent behind each customer’s question, and then provide insights using the user’s own transaction history — all within a safe, scalable environment.
True to its privacy-first approach, Starling requires customers to opt in before using the tool. Users can opt out at any time, and no personal data is used to train AI models. All information remains securely stored within Starling’s Google Cloud infrastructure.
“Starling is demonstrating how AI can be responsibly applied in banking,” said Graham Dury, Director of Financial Services at Google Cloud UK & Ireland. “By combining the power of Gemini with Starling’s commitment to customer value and data security, they’re setting a new benchmark for AI in finance.”
Expanding AI Capabilities Across Banking
Spending Intelligence builds on Starling’s existing AI advancements across fraud detection, cybersecurity, and customer service. It also follows recent innovations like its in-app bank impersonation alert system.
This feature marks a new era of smart, personalized, and proactive banking — and a bold step in Starling’s mission to make everyone “good with money”.
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