AI Agents Are Helping People Recover Money By Negotiating Bills And Chasing Refunds

In early September, Eric Allen, a retired tech executive in Carmel, California, asked Meta’s newly launched personal AI agent Muse to search through the state government’s databases and look for long lost, forgotten money he could claim. Six minutes later, the AI assistant found about $730 in Amazon store credit from more than three years ago that was given to the state to hold. It also found a $272 refund from when he switched from Sprint to another phone carrier and unused gift cards lying in his Yahoo mailbox.

The AI agent, named Marti, repeated the scan for Allen’s wife, turning up another $800 in closed bank account balances, health insurance claims and a potential payout from a class action settlement. Allen says he also set up his AI agent to call different auto repair shops on his behalf and get maintenance quotes for his Range Rover (a task that would take him hours to do by himself), regularly scan for Verizon discounts and monitor prices on a pair of shoes he wants to buy.

These cost savings won’t make a huge dent in Allen’s finances, he says. But it’s the kind of time-consuming, menial work that is so far down his to-do list that it would never get done without AI, he says. “It’s all these little incremental bits of savings to optimize your life,” he tells Forbes.

Since launching in early September, Meta’s personal AI agent Muse has gone viral. With more than 2.8 million downloads, the app overtook ChatGPT as the No. 1 app on the App Store on September 18. Meta’s stock is up 27% since its launch, adding over $25 billion to Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth in a single day, Forbes reported.

The key selling point of Meta’s blockbuster AI assistant is that rather than simply answer questions a la ChatGPT, it can complete entire digital tasks on your behalf: booking flights, order groceries and making restaurant reservations.

“This has been a huge time save because I would dread to do this in the first place.”

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