From financial awareness to financial entertainment: How India's money mindset is changing in the age of AI

There was a time when people used to treat money with caution, with the idea of saving first, spending carefully and avoiding unnecessary debt. But that approach has now reshaped after the advent of AI, which makes managing money feel less like a chore and more like a game in the form of "financial entertainment". Currently, everything is quick, as we can shop on EMI, utilise credit, invest, buy insurance or receive financial advice on the phone. Therefore, buying anything within budget doesn't require thinking twice, as money decisions based on investment awareness help utilise savings conveniently, without considering priorities, security, temptation, and consequences.

At the moment, India is moving from basic financial literacy to narrative-driven financial entertainment after the entry of AI has reshaped how young people interact with money in terms of investment and budgeting. Even a new generation of AI-powered market-intelligence tools also helps make technical analysis more accessible to India’s multilingual retail-investor base. These types of platforms allow users to ask questions about stocks, technical indicators and market trends in multiple Indian languages and receive explanations linked to market charts.

To understand India’s financial markets with a stock chart has always been challenging. This includes candlesticks, moving averages, oscillators and technical indicators, which were often accompanied by unfamiliar English terminology, leaving many users dependent on simplified tips rather than understanding how a conclusion was reached.

To provide this facility and make the audience more entertained while knowing or learning about investing, an AI market-intelligence platform, Kwala Intel, has been launched in India with a focus on markets, allowing users to ask questions about technical indicators of stocks and market trends in multiple Indian languages as well as receive detailed market charts.

To turn financial awareness into financial entertainment, casual video games are also engaged for consumers in a financial education experience that helps increase financial knowledge and confidence in financial actions and real-world behaviour change.

Also read: From rote learning to chat-native learning: How AI is changing way students prepare for competitive exams

AI can sharpen financial decisions

Financial experts have also indicated that financial conversations today are often either too technical or too focused on returns, missing the person behind the decision. Traditionally, a savings-driven economy where caution ruled- save first, spend carefully, avoid debt- but India now finds itself in a world of instant EMIs, one-tap credit, and financial opinions delivered within minutes on a phone screen. They have also noted that after the entry of artificial intelligence in this sector, it can sharpen financial decision-making without replacing it entirely.

1. Why do you believe India needs a dedicated financial entertainment property at this point in its economic journey?

MahekTomer, Creator, India’s Future Investors: I feel India’s relationship with money has moved much faster than the way we talk about money. Financial conversations are everywhere today, but they are often either too technical or too focused on what to buy, where to invest or how much someone can earn. What interests me more is the person behind the decision. How do we behave when money is limited, time is running out, and there is pressure to choose? That question became an important starting point for India’s Future Investors. I believe money deserves a place in mainstream entertainment because it is already part of everyone’s life.

2. India has traditionally been a savings-driven economy. What has changed in the way Indians think about money that makes financial entertainment relevant today?

MahekTomer: I grew up seeing money treated with a certain caution: save first, spend carefully and avoid unnecessary debt. That instinct still exists, but the world around it has completely changed. Today, everything is immediate. You can shop on EMI, access credit, invest, buy insurance or hear someone’s financial opinion within minutes on your phone. So people are making far more money decisions, much faster than before. For me, that is the real change. Access to financial products has become incredibly easy; developing the judgement to use that access responsibly still takes time. That gap is where better financial conversations are needed.

3. Can entertainment play a meaningful role in improving financial awareness and changing how people approach money?

MahekTomer: Absolutely, because sometimes experiencing a question is more powerful than being taught the answer. Suppose you have ₹50,000 saved and something you really want suddenly becomes available at half price, but buying it would mean using half your savings. What would you do? There isn’t enough information yet to declare one answer right or wrong—and that’s the point. You start thinking about priorities, security, temptation and consequences. This is what excites me about financial entertainment and what we are exploring through India’s Future Investors. Don’t just explain money to people. Give them a situation and let them discover how they think about it.

4. As AI becomes increasingly capable of analysing data and making recommendations, what role do human judgement and emotional intelligence continue to play in financial decision-making?

MahekTomer: AI can calculate faster than us, process enormous amounts of information and probably identify patterns we would miss. But money decisions are not made by numbers alone; they are made by people who have to live with the consequences. An answer can make perfect mathematical sense and still not be right for someone’s life. Family responsibilities, fear, ambition, security and the ability to sleep peacefully after taking a risk cannot always be reduced to a calculation. I see AI as an extraordinary tool for better information. But information can support judgement; it cannot take responsibility for the decision. That part remains human.

5. Can AI make people better investors, or does over-reliance on technology create new risks?

MahekTomer: I think AI can help us ask better questions and understand information faster. The risk begins when we stop asking questions altogether. A confident answer on a screen can easily feel like the correct answer, particularly to someone who does not yet understand the assumptions or risks behind it. That worries me more than AI itself. We shouldn’t outsource our judgement simply because technology makes it convenient. In fact, I think financial literacy in the AI age needs one additional skill: knowing when to question the machine. Use AI to become better informed, certainly—but don’t allow convenience to replace curiosity, judgement or responsibility.

Similarly, Dr Ashish Chandra, CEO & Founder - GFF AI, stated that AI can dramatically improve financial decision-making by processing vast amounts of data, identifying patterns and testing scenarios at a speed no individual can match. However, he added that finance is not purely a mathematical problem. He noted that human judgement remains critical as investment decisions are shaped by uncertainty, changing context, personal objectives and, importantly, emotion.

"AI may tell an investor what the data suggests; emotional intelligence helps determine whether that recommendation is appropriate for the individual. During periods of market euphoria or panic, understanding fear, greed, risk tolerance and behavioural biases can be as important as analysing fundamentals. Used well, AI can certainly make people better investors. It can democratise sophisticated research, improve financial literacy, personalise insights and help investors challenge their own assumptions. The danger is treating AI as an oracle rather than a decision-support system. Models can inherit biases, misinterpret unusual market conditions or generate recommendations with unjustified confidence. The strongest model for the future is therefore not AI replacing human judgement, but AI augmenting it: machines providing analytical intelligence, while humans retain accountability, context, ethics and the final investment decision," he said.