Financial Decision Buddy: A Decision-support Tool to Bridge the Gaps in Financial Education

Abstract

SDG 4 education and SDG 1 poverty are issues of global concern. Young people may fall into poverty due to various reasons: student debt, unemployment, and unpredictable events such as the pandemic. Therefore, education to improve their financial competence is necessary to increase their resilience to those risks and pressures. We analysed 62 participants' questionnaire data and found that most participants struggle with making optimal financial decisions when spending. With this in mind, we designed a system that uses machine learning to analyse users' previous spending habits and models it against a decision tree framework to calculate the most optimal decision within users' budgets. The system used affective interaction and anthropomorphic communication to educate users in real-time shopping environments, for example when they're shopping in a grocery store. Our user testing demonstrated that the design was helpful with cognitive offload and encouraged critical thinking when making purchasing decisions. Furthermore, our design idea sheds light on possible approaches to applying virtual AI assistants to improve skills when lacking resources such as time, place, or human experts.