Automated Assistants Will Soon Make a Bid for Your Finances - NYTimes.com

In the classic science fiction series that began with "Ender's Game," the character Jane begins by using her artificial intelligence to prepare taxes for the hero Ender, but soon takes over management of his entire financial life. When it comes to otherworldly science fiction personalities, Jane is a rather prosaic figure, but Ethan Bloch had her in mind when he began his start-up Digit. Mr. Bloch's company currently creates free automated savings accounts -- and has helped customers put aside over $250 million -- but his vision is to add capabilities until Digit becomes a full-service financial assistant like Jane. There is now a lot of competition to create an automated financial assistant for the masses. Credit Karma and Mint, two popular financial applications with many millions more users than Digit, are about to roll out suites of new features that will make them feel more like robotic financial advisers, tapping customers on the shoulder when they could make better financial decisions. One feature that both Credit Karma and Mint will offer is more automated tax preparation of the sort that Jane provided for Ender (though with much less robotic charm and thoroughness).