What Claude Sees When You Connect Your Bank Account
If your spending is split across different banks or cards, piecing together where your money went takes work. On November 5, Anthropic started rolling out a Claude feature that pulls those accounts into one conversation. You connect through Plaid, which gives Claude read-only access to your balances and up to two years of transactions. Claude cannot move, manage, or invest your money.
Once connected, Anthropic says you can ask in plain language what you spent last month, whether any charges look duplicated, what bills are coming up, or how your spending compares across months, and that Claude can flag unexpected fees and show spending by category.
Conversations in the dedicated finance hub are not used to train Anthropic’s models, but anything you share in a regular chat still follows your normal privacy settings. Claude does not see your banking password. You can unlink any account and cut off access.
The feature is in beta for US users on Pro, Max, or Ultra plans, and appears in the sidebar when available. Anthropic says users should verify important numbers with their bank.
Amazon Now Lets You Shop by Text
Amazon‘s Alexa Shopping service on November 6 started accepting requests by text message, beginning with a small invited group of US customers. You text a contact called Alexa Shopping with what you need, and it sends back suggestions you can add to your cart or buy. You can also send a photo of something you saw and ask for similar products.
In Amazon’s published example, a customer who texts for more detergent gets a confirmation before Alexa repurchases it. The service also offers price alerts, with order updates coming to the same thread later.
Amazon says it will reach millions more US customers in the coming weeks.