Jeannie Cahalane
AI is transforming personal finance, and Tendi AI is making expert financial guidance accessible to everyone. Founder John Kanalakis built Tendi to simplify budgeting, automate savings, and help users take control of their money.
1. What inspired you to create Tendi AI, and how does your background inform the platform’s mission?
John Kanalakis: Tendi came from a simple ask from my daughter to help her create a personal spending budget. That ask unlocked an awareness within me that budgeting and personal finance is not common knowledge anymore. It used to be a high-school graduation requirement to pass a basic economics class. I learned that only 17 US States still have that requirement and there’s a whole generation of students that are entering the workforce without knowing how to take their earnings and spend, save, and invest for their future. Even worse, this lack of financial literacy fuels the growing wealth gap in our country and around the world. It’s a problem that affects everyone.
My background in machine learning and developing engaging user experiences drove me to develop a personal financial advisor for everyone. Professional financial advisors can cost around $500 per hour – and they are worth it! But AI now gives us the opportunity to bring a level of highly personalized advice and active financial monitoring to everyone for less than a cup of coffee each month. When combined with an engaging user experience, this can be a tool for positive change in our economy and around the world.
2. Tendi’s AI model outperforms general AI systems like ChatGPT and Claude on the Certified Financial Planner® exam. What sets Tendi apart in personal finance AI?
John Kanalakis: General AI models like Chat GPT and Claude offer amazing conversational capabilities. However, they have trouble with financial planning. This is mostly because financial problems are layered. It’s not enough to just enter a monthly income and expenses and then ask the AI model to help me save. That’s because income could vary if you are a gig worker or have a side hustle. Expenses combine fixed items like rent and variable expenses like groceries. Debts could have different interest rates and different perks. And personal hobbies and interests drive spending – try telling a “foodie” to stop eating out at restaurants.
Tendi’s AI platform is a collection of different specialized AI models working together. Our language model implements reasoning to break down someone’s financial situation into different components. Our budgeting model has learned how people earn and spend money by processing nearly a million bank transactions. We constantly test and measure how each iteration of the Tendi AI models stack up against the large AI systems like Chat GPT and Claude (as well as older versions of our Tendi AI models) on measurable benchmarks, such as the Certified Financial Planner exam. Tendi outperforms them – not because we have a bigger AI model, but because we have smaller hyper-focused AI models working together.
3. How does Tendi’s approach to personal finance differ from other budgeting or investment apps?
John Kanalakis: We know that budgeting and financial planning are boring and tedious work. Among the dozens of budgeting apps we have tried, most require a lot of manual entry to set up your income, expenses, transactions, and categories. All of this work is automatically done for you with Tendi. We go even further to answer specific questions about your budget, not just ‘*how much*’ questions, but the ‘*why*’ questions.
We go a step further with active monitoring of your bank transactions and notify you as you get closer to your max budget amount for a category. This helps you stay mindful about expenses and helps to reduce overspending.
Additionally, Tendi looks at your current spending behaviour and compares it to an ideal spending pattern to generate behavioural challenges. If you’re spending more than the ideal at a specific fast food chain (guilty) then Tendi suggests a challenge to lightly reduce visits or turn it into a special treat for yourself. To some extent, Tendi is like a financial fitness app.
4. With connections to over 12,000 financial institutions globally, how does Tendi ensure secure and reliable bank integration?
John Kanalakis: Trust and security are absolutely paramount to us. My personal bank accounts and those of my children and close friends are all connected with Tendi. We have gone to great lengths to ensure the security and privacy of every piece of data collected. We are also mindful about collecting the absolute most minimal amount of data necessary to accomplish each task. Personally identifiable information remains on your phone, while Tendi only looks at a stream of jumbled bank transactions. We count on our partner, Plaid, to ensure safety, security, and reliability.
5. Can you share a success story or user feedback illustrating Tendi’s impact on financial management?
John Kanalakis: One story that stands out is a Beta tester with high-interest credit card debt who shared that they were barely managing to make minimum payments. Tendi showed them where their money was going and suggested specific cuts to recurring subscription expenses. Tendi also suggested a challenge to not eat out for lunch every day and bring lunch to work. The Beta tester made these minor adjustments to their spending and increased their monthly credit card payments. Over the 4 months of testing, they showed an 18% reduction in their credit card balance and were highly motivated to pay it down even further. Most of our user goals are centred around debt reduction, followed by a large purchase savings goal.
6. Tendi emphasizes bridging the wealth gap. How do you measure success in achieving this mission?
John Kanalakis: We have a super ambitious goal! Bridging the wealth gap is not just a moral imperative; it’s an existential necessity. A healthy economy only works when there is a steady exchange of goods and services among everyone. The greater the wealth gap, the more dangerous the conditions become for all of us. History reveals many examples where this imbalance self-corrects through violent means. There have been a few different methods to measure this disparity, including the Gini Coefficient for Wealth, the Lorenz Curve, the Palma Ratio, and the Theil Index. Economists around the world are familiar with these values. We opted to define two new metrics of our own, the Wealth Equality Index and the Financial Health Index. These are new economic measurements that we have been researching to help quantify financial health.
7. How does Tendi empower financial beginners while also providing advanced tools for experienced users?
John Kanalakis: Tendi is a lot like a fitness app for your personal finances. Rather than have more advanced tools for experienced users, those users simply get more out of the app. This means more complex financial challenges, deeper account insights, and more complex financial plans. We do have a few extras for Tendi Pro users that Tendi Basic users don’t get. This includes the ability to connect multiple bank accounts, perform financial simulations, and export financial plans to PDF.
8. What’s your vision for the future of Tendi in personal finance?
John Kanalakis: We see Tendi becoming even simpler and more deeply entrenched in everyday life. Just as someone has a fitness tracker on their watch and receives periodic nudges to stand up or move around, Tendi will delight users with very timely and location aware advice. The agentic AI framework that powers Tendi will take more autonomous action on behalf of the user. For example, when someone closes the month under budget, that surplus is automatically transferred into a savings account. Tendi is starting out as a smart budgeting app but will soon add retirement planning, estate planning, tax preparation, and investment guidance to become an all-in-one personal finance partner. But most importantly, our vision for Tendi is to become a super-simple tool for everyone in all income brackets to help them earn, spend, save, and invest.
9. What has been the most challenging or regretful moment in your journey with Tendi, and how did you overcome it?
John Kanalakis: I wouldn’t say there’s a moment I truly regret, but one of the biggest challenges has been navigating the constant evolution of AI tools. It’s so easy to get distracted by each new technology that emerges, but if we chased every promising lead, we would never finish anything. We’ve learned to have an overall product strategy and set short-term development goals based on the best tools available now while leaving enough flexibility to adapt as AI technology advances. The balance between focusing on what works now and staying open to future developments helps us deliver tangible results without feeling like we’re missing out on the next big thing.
10. How do you stay ahead of trends in AI and personal finance to keep Tendi at the forefront of innovation?
John Kanalakis: I make a point of attending AI conferences and meetups, reading academic papers, connecting with peers on LinkedIn, and staying involved in fintech and AI communities. I also experiment – A LOT! I conduct research and development that continuously tests emerging AI models and techniques for application to personal finance. On the economics and finance side, we work with professional Certified Financial Planners and analysts who keep up with regulatory changes and market shifts. By combining cutting-edge AI and up-to-date financial knowledge, we’re keeping Tendi innovative, accurate, and safe.
11. What does success mean to you, and what are your aspirations for Tendi in the next five years?
John Kanalakis: Ultimately, success is about closing the wealth gap and restoring financial equality. We have developed our own economic measurement for that (our *Wealth Equality Index*), and we will continuously evolve our products to achieve that equality. In the meantime, success looks like user engagement and individual financial health improvement. We developed a separate measurement (our *Financial Health Index*) to track at an individual level. If we can raise the FHI for most of our users, that’s a giant win. Our aspiration is to help 1 million users pay off debt within the next 3 years and expand our services into other countries.
12. What does a typical day look like for you as the founder of Tendi AI?
John Kanalakis: We’re a really small team, so there is no real ‘*typical day*.’ The most consistent elements include starting the day early with a quick overview of metrics from the day before – and reviewing server logs and crash reports for errors. I often spend mornings focused on engineering, AI, and product development. Later in the afternoon, the caffeine tapers off, and I shift my focus to next-generation features and AI performance strategies. In the evenings, I wind down by responding to emails and messages on social media, along with catching up with industry research. I also try to prioritize personal activities, like some light exercise or walking, to maintain balance and stay energized for the next day.
Editor’s Note
John Kanalakis saw a real problem—financial literacy is declining, and most people don’t have access to expert advice. Tendi AI isn’t just another budgeting app; it’s a smart financial coach designed to help anyone spend, save, and invest wisely.
