Top 9 AI Tools for Finance Professionals

Finance professionals often need to handle large volumes of data, and the right tools can help streamline their work, automate repetitive tasks, and increase their productivity. Many financial tools have the capacity to analyze large datasets, which can provide insights that help drive decision-making processes.

In particular, artificial intelligence (AI) has had a significant impact on the financial industry, providing ways to automate tasks, improve customer service, and analyze data more effectively. In a survey of IT executives in banking, 85% had a clear plan for adopting AI in some form.

In this article, we’ll look at some ways AI can help when offering financial services. You’ll also learn about 9 of the top AI financial applications to consider when adopting AI for your finance team.

What are AI finance tools?

AI finance tools are software applications that leverage artificial intelligence to tackle financial tasks. AI companies train programs using machine learning algorithms to help the AI model learn patterns that inform its later decisions.

Once trained, AI tools can provide real-time insights for data analysis, performance analysis, forecasting, and other tasks. The type of AI used will depend on the task. For example, natural language processing (NLP) is frequently used in customer-facing applications like chatbots.

But while AI can automate many tasks and provide useful insights, humans are still necessary for interpreting those insights, making strategic decisions, ensuring the ethical use of the technology, and managing and maintaining the AI systems.

How AI can assist in financial services and financial planning

AI capabilities can help professionals in the finance industry, from accountants to chief financial officers (CFOs), in a number of ways:

• Expense and income tracking. AI-powered tools can automate the process of recording and categorizing expenses and income. By recognizing patterns, AI can generate visualizations or Excel spreadsheets offering financial reports and insights from the data to help with budgeting.
• Customer service. User-friendly AI-powered chatbots and other generative AI tools can answer customer queries in real time, provide limited financial advice, and assist with account information. They can handle simple tasks and pass on complex issues to human representatives.
• Fraud detection. AI can analyze large volumes of transactions in real time to identify unusual patterns that may indicate fraudulent activity.
• Robo-advisers. Robo-advisers use algorithms to provide automated investment advice and portfolio management services. This can be a cost-effective alternative to traditional financial advisers.
• Risk management. AI can be used in predictive analytics and scenario modeling to assess and manage financial risk.
• Credit scoring and underwriting. AI can analyze large amounts of data quickly to assess a potential borrower’s creditworthiness, speeding up time-consuming credit decision and underwriting processes.
• Compliance monitoring. Professionals can use AI to monitor transactions to ensure regulatory compliance and alert relevant parties to potential violations, reducing the risk of penalties and reputational damage.
• Blockchain and cryptocurrency. AI can be used in conjunction with blockchain technology for various purposes, including smart contract management, decentralized finance (DeFi), and detecting fraudulent transactions in crypto.

Remember that while AI can greatly enhance efficiency and capabilities in these areas, it doesn’t replace the need for human oversight, particularly in areas like compliance, risk management, and decision making where ethical and regulatory considerations are important. 

Also, while these are common uses of AI in financial services, the technology is evolving rapidly, so the specifics can vary and new applications are continually emerging.

Benefits of using AI for financial operations

Using AI for the applications above holds many advantages. Let’s look at what you can expect when implementing AI financial applications:

• Improved efficiency. AI can automate many tasks, such as data analysis and report generation, which can significantly improve the efficiency of workflows and processes in financial services.
• Enhanced accuracy. AI can reduce human errors associated with manual data entry, improving accuracy. However, AI isn’t foolproof and can also make errors, particularly if the data it’s trained on is inaccurate, limited, or biased.
• Data-driven decision making. AI can analyze large datasets and provide insights in real time, allowing for more informed, data-driven decision-making.
• Personalized customer experience. AI technologies like chatbots can offer personalized customer interactions based on customer data. Additionally, AI can provide personalized financial advice based on an individual’s financial habits and goals.
• Better portfolio management. Robo-advisors can manage investment portfolios based on algorithmically determined strategies. They can provide an affordable and accessible way for more individuals to invest and manage their finances.
• Innovative financial products and services. With AI, financial institutions can develop and offer more innovative products and services. For example, predictive models can enable personalized financial products, and AI-driven data analysis can lead to more targeted and effective marketing.
• Enhanced risk management. AI can predict potential financial risks by identifying patterns in historical data. This can improve decision making in lending, investments, and other areas where risk assessment is critical.

While AI can offer these advantages, it’s not a panacea. Human oversight and judgment remain crucial, particularly in interpreting AI-generated insights and managing ethical considerations.

Top AI finance tools to consider

Now that you know the benefits of using AI for finance, let’s look at some of the top AI applications.

1. AlphaSense

AlphaSense is a financial research platform that helps professionals find, analyze, and act on information more quickly and efficiently. The platform uses AI to power its search engine, which allows users to find relevant information from a vast range of sources, including company filings, analyst reports, news articles, and expert call transcripts.

Best for: Financial professionals seeking market intelligence

Pros:

• Comprehensive search of over 10,000 data sources
• Real-time monitoring on chosen topics
• Collaboration with team members

Cons:

• Extensive features can overwhelm new users
• May provide less relevant information than needed

Pricing: Free trial available; contact a team member for pricing

2. Greip

Greip is a fraud detection tool that can help businesses analyze financial transactions to look for potential problems. The platform offers several tools—such as IP lookups, VPN detection, phone and email validation, and country lookup—to validate that a customer is real and isn’t a fraud risk.

Best for: Businesses needing a comprehensive solution for spotting fraud

Pros:

• Free plan
• Identity verification features
• Access restrictions to prevent unauthorized access

Cons:

• May not work with all financial institutions due to the application protection focus
• Only works with an API key

‍Pricing: Free for 15,000 requests per month; paid plans start at $14.99 per month for 170,000 requests (billed monthly)

3. ChainGPT

ChainGPT is an advanced AI model that assists individuals and businesses working on blockchain and cryptocurrency projects. The platform offers various features, including blockchain analytics, AI trading, and smart contract analysis. ChainGPT can also help with generating research reports, creating marketing materials, and answering customer questions.

Best for: Cryptocurrency and blockchain developers needing help managing cryptocurrency projects

Pros:

• Offers several features covering different aspects of cryptocurrency project management
• AI model helps with analysis and predictions
• Can generate NFT and smart contracts automatically

Cons:

• Learning curve for people new to the cryptocurrency industry
• Complex website layout
• Chatbot is sometimes slow to answer

Pricing: Free plan with limited features; Pay-Per-Prompt (PPP) plan with varying costs per feature (e.g., 2 CGPTc per NFT for AI NFT Generator, 5 CGPTc per request for Smart-Contract Auditor); Freemium plan available for diamond tier members who stake CGPT tokens, offering 20,000 CGPTc limit per month for premium tools

4. Notreload

Notreload is an AI web service that automates web content monitoring for investors. The service uses NLP to uncover relevant investment data by looking at the news, removing irrelevant information, and delivering short-form content about chosen stocks.

Best for: Investors and traders who need AI-driven insights into stock information

Pros:

• Removes the manual process of monitoring for information about investments
• Privacy-focused with no data storage or tracking
• Focused on the investment information that matters most

Cons:

• Strict focus on stock movements
• Limited public information on software usage

‍Pricing: Pricing information unavailable

5. Timworks

Timworks is a chat app designed for accountants, accountancy firms, and their clients. The platform allows users to collaborate with their teams in a Whatsapp-like interface to query transactions, request and upload documents, reconcile transactions, and organize client communications. 

Timworks also integrates with tools like Xero.

Best for: Accountants and finance professionals who need to streamline client queries

Pros:

• Integration with other finance tools
• Comprehensive dashboard
• Can simply sync client list by logging in with a work email

Con:

• Can be expensive for businesses with a lot of clients

‍Pricing: Free trial available; free plan for up to five clients; paid plans start at £50 per month (billed annually)

6. ZeroTax

ZeroTax is a tax assistance program designed to answer any tax-related questions quickly and accurately. The platform uses AI to generate answers for users and employs a team of tax experts who review the accuracy of the AI. ZeroTax also offers a call-in program for people who prefer verbal to written communication.

Best for: Professionals and businesses looking for tax assistance

Pros:

• Chatbot that provides quick answers to tax questions
• On-call chatbot available for people who want to communicate verbally
• Expert reviews (for a fee) to ensure answers are accurate in chats

Cons:

• Only suitable for tax questions
• Costs can add up if you have several questions for an expert
• May not get quick answers for more complicated tax questions

‍Pricing: Free for AI-generated advice; $50 for each question checked by tax experts

7. Finalle

Finalle is a financial knowledge base that offers real-time market data to investors. The platform includes investors charts, live signals, news, and sentiment analysis. Finalle gets this information by looking at public data sources—including social media, analyst reviews, market data, and company information—to generate insights for customers.

Best for: Investors who want real-time market insights

Pros:

• Real-time data to make financial decisions
• Chatbot to converse with to learn about the market
• Informative charts to display financial data

Cons:

• Limit of two signals on free account
• Limited API calls and chat messages on basic account
• Little API documentation

Pricing: Free plan with limited features; Pay-Per-Prompt (PPP) plan with usage-based pricing (e.g., 2 CGPTc per NFT, 5 CGPTc per smart contract audit); Freemium plan available for diamond tier members who stake CGPT tokens

8. Glean

Glean is an intelligent accounts payable (AP) program that automates data extraction, coding, bill approvals, and payments for businesses. The software automates many routine financial tasks, such as data entry, GL coding, and reporting. Glean also provides insights that help businesses find spending trends and find areas to save money.

‍Best for: Businesses that manage accounts payable

Pros:

• Process automation to save time
• Better insights into spending
• Vendor management system

Cons:

• No natural language search
• Limited customization options

Pricing: Paid plans start at $295 per month, billed annually

9. Truewind

Truewind is an AI finance tool designed for startups, providing a robust back office that offers bookkeeping, financial models, and faster monthly closes. The tool also automates many functions, such as transaction tagging and transaction downloads.

‍Best for: Startups looking to handle books and get accurate finances to help make growth decisions

Pros:

• Helps businesses close the month quicker
• Personalized support from financial experts
• Use natural language to provide context to transactions

Cons:

• Designed for startups
• Concierge service may not scale indefinitely
• Tailored service may prove cost-prohibitive for startups without funding

Pricing: Contact Truewind for pricing information

Examples of companies using AI finance tools

AI has practical applications, from large enterprises to small businesses. We offer a few examples of businesses using AI for financial services.

• JPMorgan Chase is developing a chatbot called IndexGPT based on ChatGPT—but trained on financial information. JPMorgan’s goal is for the chatbot to act as a financial adviser and offer investment advice to users.
• Kensho is a data analytics and machine intelligence company that provides AI tools to financial institutions. Kensho’s advanced analytics extract insights from complex financial data, enabling traders and analysts to ask complex financial questions in plain language, with the AI offering immediate answers based on its analysis of vast amounts of data.

Suncoast Credit Union used the Zest.ai platform to help streamline its underwriting process to deliver faster and safer loans.

Embrace AI with the help of Upwork

AI is making waves in countless industries—and the finance sector is no different. New AI technologies allow professionals and organizations to make the most of their data through analysis and automate many tasks that humans can struggle with. These tools act as an aid to their human counterparts—allowing people to make more informed decisions and make the most of the data offered by AI.

If you’re a business owner or manager who wants to start taking advantage of AI systems in your organization, you can find AI experts by browsing Upwork’s Talent selection.

If you’re an AI professional looking for your next client, find your next project by browsing AI jobs on Upwork.

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Upwork is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the tools or services discussed in this article. These tools and services are provided only as potential options, and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation.

Prices are current at the time of writing and may change over time based on each service’s offerings.