Can AI replace your Monday morning bank check?

Quiet satisfying week for AI news — nothing dramatic, two things worth knowing about, and a good excuse to get more out of tools you're already paying for.

Can AI replace your Monday morning bank check?

Perplexity — the AI search engine that gives you written answers instead of a list of links — now connects directly to your bank accounts. Link up through Plaid (which already powers most banking apps) and ask plain-English questions like "what did I spend on supplies last month?" or "show me all my balances in one place."

If your morning routine involves logging into three or four bank apps just to know where you stand, this puts it all in one conversation. According to Perplexity, it connects to over 12,000 banks and works on the free tier for basic views, with deeper analysis on their Pro plan at twenty dollars a month.

The honest caveat: this is personal finance, not business accounting. It won't replace Xero or QuickBooks, and it won't do your VAT return. But for a quick "where's my cash right now" answer without opening multiple apps, it does the job.

If you're an accountant or bookkeeper, pay attention. Your clients will start connecting their accounts to tools like this — some already have. When they can generate their own spending breakdown in thirty seconds, turning up with the same report next Tuesday feels slow. The value moves upstream: tax strategy, forecasting, scenario planning. The stuff a chatbot can't do with raw transactions alone.

What to do next: Try it at perplexity.ai with one personal account first. Takes under ten minutes. Don't connect a business account until you've read their data policy and had a word with your accountant about whether you're comfortable with a third party seeing your transaction history.

Already using Notion? You've got free AI agents until May 3

Notion now lets you build automated agents inside your workspace — small helpers that triage tasks, answer "where's that document?" questions from your team, and write daily status updates without anyone lifting a finger. Available on Business and Enterprise plans, and free to test until May 3.

Who this is for: Agencies, consultancies, and any team already living in Notion where someone spends an hour a day chasing updates or answering the same internal questions. If you're not already on Notion, skip this — adopting a new platform just for one feature is a week-long project, not a quick win.

The catch: once your team builds habits around these agents, switching them off hurts. That's the pattern — free until you depend on it, then the credits pricing appears. Test it, but keep notes on what you'd lose if the price doesn't suit you.

What to do next: Open Notion, search for "agents" in the help menu, and set up one agent that answers a question your team asks every week. Twenty minutes to get started.

Quick hits

• HMRC updated its Customs Declaration Service guidance this week — new procedure codes and workaround documents. If you import or export, flag it to whoever handles your customs paperwork. If you don't, ignore it completely.
• OpenAI published a security update about how they handle your data. Nothing you need to act on, but if you use ChatGPT for sensitive business writing, their transparency page is worth a skim.

The bottom line

Nothing urgent this week. If you've been meaning to actually learn the AI tool you signed up for three months ago, this is your weekend to do it.

That's today's briefing. Subscribe free to get this in your inbox every morning.