The New Year is fast approaching, which has me rethinking my annual resolutions. Some people wish to eat healthier and exercise more, but for me it’s about higher financial management.
One way I try to perform that is by tracking my expenses. The only problem? Logging in data manually becomes too boring and I finally surrender. I attempted apps, spreadsheets, and even writing it down in physical notebooks – nothing worked.
But I recently got here across this Najib A.Iwhich may be a game changer for struggling people like me.
Using artificial intelligence to manage your spending habits
NajibAI, created by Malaysian founder Dylan Tan, is WhatsApp’s chat-based artificial intelligence (AI) for recording bills and tracking expenses.
This is one in every of the few free tools that Dylan’s company, Replyr.ai (a company that helps turn WhatsApp chats into paying customers powered by AI) makes.
“As a fun side project, I created NajibAI, a free WhatsApp tool that helps Malaysians manage their expenses,” Dylan shared with us. “It’s a tool for Malaysians, by a Malaysian, that makes tracking expenses easy, practical and more fun.”
Anyone can do this if you’ve a WhatsApp account. All it’s essential do is take a photo of your receipt, send it to a chat with NajibAI and he’ll enthusiastically aid you store your data.
Currently, NajibAI only tracks a few key items on a receipt:
- Company name
- Transaction date
- Total amount spent
- Type of transaction (e.g. food, shopping, etc.)
Once NajibAI receives your photo, it’ll extract this information out of your bill and make it available to you for review. Once the small print are confirmed, they can be saved in NajibAI’s memory bank.
You can even add notes to the receipt record for future reference. Based on the important thing elements, you’ll be able to ask for a summary of your spending habits, which I personally find most useful.
For example, if you must learn how much you’ve already spent on food this month, you’ll be able to simply ask NajibAI.
Another cool thing about this WhatsApp-based AI tool is that it really works for bills in any language and any currency. This makes it a convenient solution if you find yourself traveling abroad and wish to persist with your holiday budget.
I used to be initially skeptical of this claim, but I attempted it with several foreign receipts online in languages resembling Mandarin, Russian and even Greek. NajibAI was capable of extract all the important thing information with none problems typically, but it surely didn’t necessarily locate the corporate name or currency used on the receipt.
Since the tracker continues to be in beta testing, it just isn’t all the time perfect. Occasional issues I’ve noticed are problems separating the corporate name (especially if it’s in a non-Latin language) and confusing the full amount spent.
The response time of the chat-based tool can be a bit longer than what I’m used to, often averaging 5 to 10 seconds before responding. However, these are only minor issues that may be fixed with improvements.
Is data and privacy something to fret about?
The larger, more pressing issue can be data and privacy because it is a WhatsApp-based tool.
In this regard, Dylan assured that interacting with NajibAI isn’t any different than sending a message to every other company via WhatsApp. “Everything happens in a secure WhatsApp environment. We do not link receipt data to personal identities and the system operates in accordance with WhatsApp’s privacy guidelines.”
That said, it’s actively working so as to add more transparency features to offer users greater visibility and control over their data. Just today it introduced a recent feature that permits users to request deletion of their data by simply asking NajibAI to achieve this.
“I do not anticipate any significant legal issues as NajibAI operates under WhatsApp’s terms of service. However, I am monitoring feedback closely and am willing to adapt if users or other stakeholders raise concerns. The goal is to maintain trust and act responsibly, while ensuring users have free access to this useful tool,” Dylan said.
As for why he selected WhatsApp, it comes right down to user convenience. It’s no secret that WhatsApp is a platform that many Malaysians use on a every day basis, so Dylan thought it will make probably the most practical sense.
He believes that expense management can feel more natural when it happens in a space that individuals already associate with communication and image sharing.
That said, NajibAI provides insight into the capabilities of AI and plays a role in what Replyr.ai creates. Its core business focuses on sales automation on WhatsApp for businesses, using AI agents to perform activities resembling collecting payments, updating CRM, and scheduling meetings.
We jump on the “Bossku” train.
Now let’s address the elephant within the room… Where does the name Najib come from?
“I chose the name as a fun nod to Malaysian pop culture. Bossku has become part of our everyday slang and I wanted NajibAI to feel approachable and local,” Dylan explained. “It’s just a fun and accessible way to make tracking your expenses more interesting.”
While it could appear to be that is referring to a specific person, the founder confirmed that there is no such thing as a explicit reference to anyone.
On the legal side, he has done his due diligence to make sure there is no such thing as a defamatory content or explicit association. “It’s really fair [about] creating a relaxed interaction [more] than anything else. Expense management is boring, but NajibAI adds a touch of Malaysian humor to it,” he said.
This is definitely one in every of the important thing lessons he learned from a previous work called AhBengGPT, a chat-based game powered by ChatGPT by which players try to barter the acquisition of an iPhone from Malaysian phone retailer Ah Beng.
“AhBengGPT taught me how vital it’s to maintain interactions fun, engaging and uniquely local. “Malaysians appreciate humor and distinctive accents, which is why NajibAI tends to use the term ‘Bossku’, just like AhBengGPT would speak in really strong Malaysian slang,” he shared.
To help more Malaysians manage their expenses higher, Dylan intends to make NajibAI available to anyone who can use it without spending a dime. This is a small cost for Replyr.ai, but it surely is more taken with providing greater advantages to more people.
For now, the main target is on learning how users interact with artificial intelligence and improving the user experience based on that.
- Learn more about NajibAI Here.
- Read other articles we’ve written about Malaysian startups here.
Also Read: 3 Benefits Your Tech Startup Will Enjoy by Joining the MRANTI Supercharger Series Explained
