Starling Bank has unveiled a range of artificial intelligence features designed to help its customers take greater control of their finances. Announced on 20 August 2026, these “smart tools” sit inside the bank’s existing conversational AI helper, known as Starling Assistant, and aim to simplify everyday money tasks for both personal and business account holders.
The initial collection of tools is already live, and Starling plans to introduce fresh ones every week for the rest of 2026, before shifting to at least monthly updates thereafter.
Because the tools form part of an agentic AI system, they can carry out banking actions on a customer’s behalf after receiving simple spoken or typed instructions.
Users can already ask the assistant to move money, open dedicated savings pots called Spaces, or examine spending trends through ordinary conversation.
At launch, several practical tools are available.
One, called Tax saver, works with small and medium-sized enterprises to identify taxable transactions and automatically move a chosen percentage into a separate Space so funds are ready when the bill arrives.
Another guides business owners through Making Tax Digital requirements, helping them check eligibility, complete registration and understand what happens next.
A spending quiz challenges customers to recall where their money has gone across different shops and categories, while a student budget planner walks university users through income sources such as loans and part-time work alongside typical living costs to build a realistic plan.
Later this month two further tools will appear.
The rainy-day saver studies income, regular payments and spending habits, then collaborates with the customer to decide a realistic savings amount and sets up automatic transfers into a dedicated Space.
Fraud controls will help users activate protective features such as the bank’s snatch-theft detector, call-status indicator and scam-intelligence alerts according to individual needs.
Harriet Rees, Group Chief Information Officer at Starling, explained the thinking behind the rollout:
“Our smart tools take the guesswork out of what AI can do; they perform specific tasks and have specific pre-programmed prompts that customers can use with a simple tap.”
The bank is also opening the development process to its five million retail and business customers.
Ideas for new smart tools can be submitted through the Help section of the Starling app; in the near future requests will be accepted directly inside the assistant itself. ‘
All of the tools released at launch originated from customer suggestions gathered across the United Kingdom.
Starling intends to let customers build their own smart tools, creating a truly personalised version of the assistant.Rees added that while traditional money-management features are now common across digital banks, artificial intelligence remains a differentiating area.
By gathering public ideas, encouraging external experimentation and delivering new capabilities at speed, she believes the practical benefits of AI-driven banking can be realized nationwide.
Starling continues its mission of helping people stay in active control of their finances through personal, joint, business and student accounts as well as a children’s card. The weekly cadence of smart-tool releases is expected to expand the assistant’s usefulness, turning everyday banking into a more proactive and tailored experience.