Hey, co-founder here: I'll be the first to say that the chat interface isn't for everyone. If you'd prefer to get the facts with minimal extra stuff, Penny might not be for you. What we've found from working on this from so long is that the chat interface goes a long way towards making finances relatable and easy to understand. For most people, the biggest barrier to personal finance literacy isn't education; it's motivation. So celebrating wins like paychecks coming in actually helps a lot—feedback says people love being told they got paid and celebrating.

I can see the chat interface being built out by itself as a stepping stone to adding integration to Google Assistant / Google Home which would be neat.

The idea of someone talking about my personal spends would be really annoying. But I can see how useful it could be for other people, it would be like a personal finance consultant giving tips.