FinBuddy

FinBuddy was inspired by the need to make financial guidance more accessible, especially for marginalized communities who often face barriers to traditional resources. We wanted to create a supportive, judgment-free tool that delivers personalized, actionable advice using AI. Through this project, we learned how to design context-aware conversations, securely manage user data without a backend, and apply prompt engineering to maintain a consistent, empathetic tone. We built the app using React, Tailwind CSS, and Gemini's API, with user data stored locally in the browser. One major challenge was balancing personalization with privacy, which we solved by avoiding external databases. Another was ensuring the AI felt approachable and helpful, which required careful iteration. Despite time constraints, we successfully built a clean, functional MVP focused on impact.