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Starling customers can now use AI to understand their spending habits
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UK Industry-first tool marks first phase of Starling’s customer-facing AI strategy
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Forms part of Starling’s mission to help the UK be ‘Good with money’
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Built using Google Gemini in collaboration with Google Cloud
10 June 2025: Starling Bank customers can now use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to better understand their spending habits. The UK-first feature, called ‘Spending Intelligence’, allows customers to ask questions about their money, such as “How much did I spend on groceries last week?” or ”How much did I donate to charity last year?” before receiving instant analysis.
This is the first time a UK bank has given customers the opportunity to use AI and natural language in-app to directly interact with their spending data. It’s the first phase of Starling’s wider plans to implement AI across customer touch points.
Good with money
Spending Intelligence has been built to help customers overcome a key roadblock in money management: knowing exactly where their money goes. It forms part of Starling’s long-term ambition to help customers take active control of their finances, with the bank set to launch a series of pioneering features and tools that make money management an everyday habit.
“At Starling we believe that knowledge is power, and it’s the first step to taking active control of your money. Now, customers can use AI to feed their natural curiosity about their finances so that they can make informed decisions about their budgeting, and better utilise Starling’s suite of money management tools, ” said Harriet Rees, CIO of Starling Bank.
How it works
Starling’s Spending Intelligence feature bolsters the bank’s popular Spending tab, which shows customers how much they spend, where they spend it and when. Transactions are listed by retailer and fall into 50+ customisable categories, from everyday expenses like ‘Bills’, ‘Transport’ and ‘Groceries’, to bigger ticket items like ‘Holidays’ and ‘Weddings’.
Starling’s AI feature sits at the top of the Spending tab. Customers can ask questions via their keyboard, and can even use their voice for a more interactive experience. The app also has suggested prompts that are personalised to the customer’s spending patterns.
Spending Intelligence might suggest that frequent travellers ask the tool for holiday spending analysis; for commuters to check their spend on bus and train fares; or for serial diners to check their spend on meals out. Once a prompt is selected or a question asked, the customer receives a graph and analytics that help them build a bigger picture of their spending habits over time.
“Starling disrupted the banking sector with an app-based approach to money management, now we’re doing it again with AI,” Harriet continued. “We believe that anyone and everyone can be ‘Good with money,’ so we’ve designed this feature so that people can engage with their finances in a way that feels natural to them. The more you talk or type, the more you’ll learn about your money management.”
Starling’s AI vision
Spending Intelligence is engineered using Google’s Gemini models, running on the secure and scalable Google Cloud platform. This allows the tool to understand the intent and context of a customer’s natural language query, before Starling’s proprietary systems perform the analysis on the customer’s own transactional data.
In line with Starling’s commitment to privacy, customers have to opt in to use Spending Intelligence and can opt out at any time. All data remains securely within Starling’s Google Cloud environment and is not used for training purposes. Starling plans to continually improve its AI capabilities by understanding what questions customers are asking.
“By leveraging the power of Gemini and the secure, scalable infrastructure of Google Cloud, Starling is creating tangible value for its customers and empowering them with greater financial understanding. This is a brilliant example of how AI can be applied responsibly and effectively in the financial services sector,” said Graham Dury, Director, FSI, Google Cloud in the UK and Ireland.
Spending Intelligence follows a number of AI innovations developed by Starling on its Google Cloud infrastructure, including solutions for cybersecurity, fraud prevention and customer service. It is the latest in a series of feature launches from the digital bank, including its in-app tool to combat bank impersonation.
