As inflation bites, European consumers are turning to cost-cutting tools and techniques this holiday season.
In fact in the U.K., a poll by Accenture found that 70% of all adults are planning to cut back on festive spending this year, while about 49% said they were looking to cut back on gifts, 46% on eating out, and 35% on socializing and food and drink at home.
To help consumers rein in their holiday expenses, neobanks like Bunq have been rolling out budgeting tools that allow Europeans to ring-fence money in separate sub-accounts, for example.
As the firm’s CEO Ali Niknam explained to PYMNTS, the tool helps users set different budgets for categories such as groceries, housing and car expenses, after which Bunq automatically detects which budget a given payment belongs to and assigns funds from the correct sub-account.
Related: Digital Budgeting Tools Are Inflation Era Lifeline for Millennials and Gen Zs
Niknam added that “people should have tools to easily identify what they’re spending their money on […] so that they can cut away anything that is not important enough for them to keep.”
Other digital-first challenger banks such as Monzo, Revolut and Starling all have their own budgeting tools to help customers manage their money more effectively.
Related: Revolut’s ‘Pockets’ Tool Aims To Help People Organize Payments
Like Bunq, these neobanks approaches to cost-cutting are built around allocating a set budget to different spending categories to help consumers stay on top of their expenses and gain better insight into where their money goes.
For example, earlier this month, Starling introduced virtual cards for its current account customers to give them more control over their spending.
Each virtual card is linked to a “Saving Space” in the Starling app, instead of the user’s main account balance. Starling customers are able to choose from which Space they spend, allowing them to set separate budgets for travel, groceries, etc. When one Space runs out of funds, the virtual card declines a transaction instead of dipping into the customer’s main balance.
The neobank has also redesigned its “Spending Insights” feature to give users a clearer picture of their finances. Starling customers can analyze their spending from specific Spaces and during custom date ranges, allowing them to use the app’s interactive graphs to help them better understand their spending patterns.
Budgeting Tools for All Ages
With Europe’s cost of living crisis affecting all generations, digital budgeting tools need to be able to appeal to different age ranges.
For older generations, FinTechs like Moneyhub have developed dashboards to help pensioners view and manage all of their pensions in a single place.
For example, the company has partnered with the U.K. pensions provider Standard Life to create a digital financial wellness product for its customers.
To further build on that relationship, it was recently announced that Standard Life’s owner, Phoenix Group, has invested £15 million in Moneyhub to become a minority stakeholder.
In a press release announcing the funding, Moneyhub said it will continue to provide Standard Life “more tailored, customer-centric services through consumer-driven data and open banking payments.”
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What do the movies “Blade Runner,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Back to the Future Part II” and Spike Jonze’s “Her” all have in common?
These science fiction movies, each depicting various versions of a future full of fantastic technologies, all take place in the year 2025 or earlier.
Though some of the high-tech gadgets and futuristic innovations seen in these films, such as hoverboards and flying cars, haven’t quite materialized in everyday life, they have sparked imagination and set the stage for the very real innovations. As the dozens of groundbreaking products and wacky gadgets that debuted at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week reveal, the future is certainly now.
CES, after all, rarely disappoints when it comes to providing a first-look at some truly strange gadgets that might just represent the ultimate showcase of tomorrow’s technology.
From artificial intelligence (AI) being embedded into everything and smarter than ever home devices, to autonomous robotic companions and wearable tech that both bends and blends reality, many of the inventions that once seemed out of reach in Hollywood films are now being unveiled on the convention floor.
See also: The Five Not-So-Obvious Things That Will Change the Digital Economy in 2025
It’s becoming clear that today’s technological advancements are increasingly bridging the gap between what was once imagined and what’s now becoming real.
For example, smart home robots are no longer a futuristic fantasy — they are being positioned as potentially indispensable components of modern households.
CES 2025 saw the debut of the Roborock Saros Z70, a robot vacuum with a telescopic, five-axis arm. Rosey the Robot from “The Jetsons” has nothing on this little gadget, which its maker describes as “a mechanical arm that sees and thinks,” and is able to pick up and put away items like socks, shoes, tissues and more.
For more serious household tasks, the SwitchBot Multitasking Household Robot K20+ Pro was also unveiled at CES 2025. “Whether it’s delivering objects, vacuuming, monitoring pets, purifying the air, providing home security, or even mobilizing smart tablets, the K20+ Pro juggles household management with ease … from delivering food and drinks to carrying small packages,” said a company release.
Read more: Training Robots Using Video Games Could Democratize Warehouse Automation
The K20+ Pro’s core is designed for customization and flexibility, serving as a modular foundation that allows users to create, adapt, and personalize the robot for a wide variety of innovative applications, and can connect with third-party smart devices like Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri, ensuring integration into any smart home ecosystem.
Elsewhere, TCL premiered its “AI Me” (Amy) concept companion robot, complete with animated eyes, autonomous movement and an AI-powered camera on its head; while Dreame showcased its X50 Ultra robot vacuum that has legs to avoid obstacles.
As smart home technology continues to evolve, the integration of robots designed to assist in daily activities could significantly alter how we interact with our homes, manage tasks and even shape the future of work.
TomBot, for example, debuted an emotional robotic lap dog, Jennie, an AI robot therapy dog designed to keep seniors company. On the more playful side of things, Tokyo robotics startup Yukai Engineering introduced the Nékojita FuFu, a portable cat-shaped robot that can blow air to cool hot food or drinks.
It wasn’t solely robotics for use at home being showcased at CES. John Deere used the Las Vegas event to reveal its own autonomous agricultural products. The fully autonomous machines were on display from Jan. 7 to 10, and were a bit bigger in size, if equivalently less cute, than the TomBot puppies.
Read more: Google Reportedly Bringing Gemini AI to TV Sets
Behind the strangely futuristic convenience of a robot picking up your laundry and taking out the trash while it vacuums and interfaces with the rest of your household appliances lies a much larger story: the rise of the smart economy.
As CES 2025 showed, augmented reality (AR) glasses are the eye candy of the smart economy. A host of futuristic specs were unveiled, capable of a range of tasks that turn the wearer into a high-tech superhero.
Halliday showcased “the world’s first proactive AI glasses with invisible display,” while freshly debuted Loomos.AI glasses offer a ChatGPT-4o integrated AI assistant.
But other appendages remain up for grabs, and innovative products from smart rings to apps like WowMouse, which allows smartwatch wearers to control devices using just their gestures and fingers, are vying for market share in ways that aim to make daily life more convenient, efficient and secure.