Financial health is increasingly recognized as a bridge to resilience and prosperity. However, as CGAP has explored, access alone is not enough. Financial health must focus on outcomes – whether people can smoothly manage day-to-day financial needs, cope with shocks, pursue goals, and feel confident about their financial lives.
As open finance ecosystems expand and AI-powered tools become more sophisticated, personal finance management (PFM) apps are emerging as a potential driver of improved financial health. By aggregating data across accounts, creating a 360-degree view of the customer’s financial life, and generating real-time insights, these tools promise to move beyond static budgeting toward more personalized and proactive financial advice. But are they delivering meaningful outcomes for users?
Between August and September 2025, CGAP conducted customer research to assess whether PFM apps are associated with improvements in financial health among smartphone users in India. The survey included 274 screened PFM users drawn from a national smartphone panel and captured self-reported changes in money management, confidence, resilience, and goal achievement attributable to PFM use. Our sample was roughly evenly divided between those using PFM features embedded in their bank’s app and those using dedicated PFM apps, with about 10% of the sample using both.
PFM tools are generally built leveraging the Account Aggregator (AA) framework—India’s version of open finance—which enables users to securely aggregate data from multiple financial accounts across institutions into a single interface, with customer consent. AAs provide the integrated data layer, while AI helps translate that data into value through automated categorization, personalized insights, and behavioral nudges. The findings provide insights into how open finance–enabled, AI-powered tools may be influencing users’ financial outcomes.
Key findings
Strong improvements in money management
Some 85% of respondents reported improvements in their ability to manage their finances because of PFM apps, with 31% reporting significant improvement (see Figure 1). For those who reported that their money management ability had very much improved since using PFM tools, we found differences by type of tool, with 25% of those using bank apps, 32% of those using dedicated apps, and 48% of those using both reporting significant improvement.
The ability to smoothly manage day-to-day finances is foundational to financial health. By consolidating financial information, categorizing transactions, tracking spending patterns, and offering AI-driven nudges, PFM apps appear to help users better understand and actively manage their financial situations.
Improved resilience: access to emergency funds
Financial resilience, represented in our survey as the ability to access funds in the event of an emergency, is the second component of financial health. Overall, 58% of survey participants said they would find it easy or somewhat easy to come up with USD $115 in the event of an emergency. This percentage was 50% for those who had been using the tools for less than two years, and climbed to 70% for those who had been using them for more than two years. Some 85% of respondents reported improvements in their ability to access emergency funds due to PFM apps, with 27% reporting significant improvements (See Figure 2). We also found differences between the types of apps, with 19% of those using bank apps, 33% of those using dedicated apps, and 38% of those using both reporting significant improvement. Together, these findings suggest sustained engagement and specialized design matters.
Greater progress toward financial goals
Some 95% of respondents reported having a financial goal. When asked about their most important financial goal, the most popular goals were increasing savings (30%), starting or investing in a business (17%), and buying an asset (13%).
Among respondents who reported having a financial goal, 90% said their ability to achieve that goal had improved due to PFM apps (See Figure 3).
Frequency of use was associated with stronger outcomes. Those who used PFM apps daily were more likely to report significant improvements than less frequent users (25% vs 16%)—reinforcing that consistent engagement strengthens impact.
AI-powered PFM apps can contribute to multidimensional improvements in financial health and not just better budgeting, but better management of day-to-day finances, stronger resilience, meaningful progress toward long-term goals, and higher confidence.
Greater confidence
Finally, 85% of users reported improvements in confidence from using the tools (See Figure 4). Notably, women were more likely than men to report that their confidence had “very much improved” (33% for women vs 24% for men).
Multidimensional improvements in financial health
Looking holistically across four dimensions—managing day-to-day finances, access to emergency funds, achieving future goals, and confidence— 95% of respondents reported improvements in at least one dimension. 93% of respondents reported improvements in two or more indicators, 88% in three or more, and 70% saw improvements across all four dimensions of financial health.
These findings suggest that open finance–enabled, AI-powered PFM apps can contribute to multidimensional improvements in financial health and not just better budgeting, but better management of day-to-day finances, stronger resilience, meaningful progress toward long-term goals, and higher confidence.
Implications for open finance
India’s AA ecosystem is often discussed in terms of credit expansion and innovation. Yet these findings highlight another important pathway of impact – open finance, when combined with AI-powered tools, can strengthen individual-level financial health. Three implications stand out:
- Data integration matters. Consent-based data sharing enables richer, more personalized insights.
- Engagement matters. Long-term and frequent use is associated with greater improvements.
- Design matters. Dedicated PFM tools appear to generate stronger perceived gains than basic budgeting features.
As open finance continues to scale, success should not only be measured by credit unlocked or integrations achieved, but also by whether people are better able to manage money, build resilience, and pursue their aspirations.
