An Account Fit for an Agent
Your agent already makes payments. Starting today, you can give it an account to manage.
We’re excited to share that you can now use Pool with personal agents and assistants. We’re already using agents to write emails, do research, plan trips and contest parking tickets. One-off transactions are exploding! And at Pool, we believe agents can help with other types of money management tasks too, inside whatever agent you’re already using.
Most traditional banks are launching their own proprietary assistants in their banking apps and blocking outside agents entirely. We’re doing the opposite: we want to bring a financial account into an agent you already use.
Instead of banning access, we want to build the control system that makes this type of access possible.
An agent does not need access to your entire bank account or credit limit to help with a particular job. It needs an account it can access, appropriate authorizations and safety measures, and a set of clear directions to follow.
Text your money
We’re getting to a point where agents can help with the work that comes with running accounts. Tedious admin tasks like checking balances, configuring rules, moving money and managing access.
Instead of opening another app, text your agent:
- How much is in my travel Pool?
- Create a Pool called Holiday Travel and invite my sister.
- Monitor my HOA portal for my monthly electric bill and pay it each month
- Pause the card on my Subscriptions Pool
Your agent can carry out supported actions, not just tell you how to do them. All without leaving the tools you’re already using.
What can Pool and an agent do together?
Many people still don’t trust an agent with their primary credit card or bank account. This is understandable! As better controls are put in place, we think this will change.
Pool works with compatible personal agents and assistants through our MCP connection. Our goal is to support as many as possible, because we believe that you should be able to access and manage money from wherever you already work.
With Pool connected, your agent can:
- Check balances across your Personal Balance and Pools
- Create and manage Pools, including members and permissions
- Move money between your accounts, subject to your authorization
- Set up and manage recurring deposits
- Pause or unpause debit cards
- Look up transactions, transfers, members, invites, and statements
With an agent that supports scheduled tasks, you can begin to build ongoing workflows around your accounts, too. Here’s a comparison between a workflow that attempts to use Wells Fargo’s “Fargo” Assistant versus Pool + Town:
How is this different from paying with an agent?
Every Pool is custom-built around a specific job with its own balance, cards, rules, members, and permissions. A house account, a caregiver card, travel savings, or whatever else you’re managing.
When you pay with an agent, the underlying card or bank account you are using goes into that agent’s wallet. This could be your primary card or bank account, and the wallet is in charge of keeping your credentials safe.
We’re building the account and card layer because we believe a new set of cards and accounts should exist that are designed specifically for agents to use. You can enter your Pool credentials or debit card into any agent wallet today.
A wallet gives an agent a way to pay. An account gives an agent something to manage. That’s the key difference.
You stay in charge
Safety is a critical consideration, and something that factors into every product decision we make. Agents introduce a brand-new way to interact with money, and it’s entirely reasonable to question what could go wrong. Real money means high stakes.
We want to make our approach to agents very clear:
- Connecting an agent is entirely optional. You are not required to connect an agent to use Pool.
- Disconnect whenever you choose. Log into Pool and review connected agents. You can revoke access to any agent whenever you choose. Disconnecting stops future requests once you revoke but does not reverse transactions already in progress.
- Choose what the agent is allowed to do. You’ll approve proposed transactions and choose which permissions to grant. We want the experience of sharing a Pool with an agent to be pleasant and helpful.
Giving agents access to money should come with clear, understandable controls. We’re working hard to make these controls easy to understand and adjust. It’s your money, after all.
Build with us
We are at the very beginning of seeing how personal agents will work with real financial accounts. We have a lot of ideas and quite a long history in payments, but we certainly don’t have all the answers. We know this will require ongoing collaboration between our customers, our banking partner, the card networks, and many others. We’re genuinely excited to take part in this moment in time.
We want to be open about what we’re building, share what we’re learning, and hear from people exploring this new world. We’d especially love to hear from those experimenting with agents themselves. What works? What have you set up? What should we build next?
If you connect an agent to Pool, tell us what you asked it to do, and what you wish were possible. Your feedback will shape what we build next.
Try it out
First you’ll need a Pool account. Pool is currently available to U.S. residents ages 18 and over. You can sign up for a Pool account here.
Then, connect a compatible agent to Pool and get to work:
Text your money. It’s finally ready to listen.
Pool is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by First Internet Bank, Member FDIC. See applicable account agreements and disclosures: https://poolmoney.com/legal