Whatever you do with AI, don’t give AI bots your banking information.

Agents like Meta’s Muse, OpenClaw and OpenAI’s dots are all the rage in the AI world these days. They promise to go beyond a chatbot that gives you information, becoming a tool where you can tell it to do something for you and it goes and does it.

When you first sign up for an AI agent, you may be asked to grant permission for it to access your apps, browsers and data so it can work with them. That might put your money at risk in unexpected ways. 

“The intention might be something simple, like managing a calendar. But that access can give the agent the ability to do much more than the person intended,” said John Strand, the owner of the cybersecurity firm Black Hills Information Security. While you may be giving the agent access to simple smart home routines or getting help planning a trip, your banking information may also be accessible. 

It might be tempting to think you can automate your financial chores and have more time for other things, but handing over your account credentials to an agent opens you up to many different things that can go wrong.

For one, AI agents might not be as secure as you think. This technology is very new — these kinds of always-on, persistent agents have really only been available for less than a year , and big companies like Meta and OpenAI have just put out their own versions in the last couple of months.

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