Bloomberg brings ASKB AI to mobile with cross-device sync

Bloomberg has made ASKB available on mobile devices through its Bloomberg Professional app, extending the conversational AI tool from the Bloomberg Terminal to iOS and Android phones and tablets.

The update lets users start a query on a desktop Terminal and continue the same conversation on a phone or tablet without starting over. Profile personalisation now also carries across devices, allowing users to set details such as their role, area of focus and preferences so responses remain consistent.

ASKB is Bloomberg's conversational interface for Terminal users, designed to help investors and other financial professionals search news, data, research and analytics through natural-language prompts. The mobile version is intended to mirror the desktop experience rather than offer a reduced set of functions.

Existing conversational workflows, workflow sharing across firms, prompt optimisation and file previews are available on mobile as they are on desktop. Users can also schedule and view Morning Reports on both formats through the same setup.

Cross-device use

Bloomberg has added a dedicated ASKB tab to the Bloomberg Professional mobile app, giving the tool greater prominence for mobile users. On Apple devices, the interface now uses Apple's Liquid Glass design language, while a similar design update for Android is due later.

The rollout centres on continuity between devices. A user could start researching an executive before a meeting on desktop, then continue reading or asking follow-up questions on a mobile device while travelling to the meeting.

Other examples include reviewing a scheduled morning market briefing during a commute, checking moves in a watchlist between meetings, and looking up an unfamiliar company or financial term during a conversation.

Fahd Arshad, Head of Product for ASKB at Bloomberg, outlined the technical approach behind that continuity.

"Continuity like this isn't just a design choice, it's an architecture decision. ASKB maintains a persistent session for each user, and that session, not just the interface, is what persists across devices in real time. When someone switches from the Terminal service on desktop to mobile or vice versa, they're not launching a new conversation, they're continuing the ongoing thread, with the same context intact. The value isn't just that ASKB is on your mobile device. It's that your train of thought never has to end when you close your laptop," Arshad said.

AI in finance

The launch reflects a broader push by financial information providers to place generative AI tools directly into daily investor workflows rather than keep them as separate products. Bloomberg is integrating ASKB into the established Terminal and the related mobile app used by Bloomberg Anywhere subscribers.

The mobile version draws on the same underlying data-access and control structure as the desktop product. ASKB works through coordinated AI agents with access to user-entitled data, news, research and analytics.

The same trust and verification features also remain in place on mobile. These include source attribution, access to Bloomberg Query Language code generated for structured data analysis, and validators that check answers before they are shown to users.

That is likely to matter for finance professionals, as the use of AI tools raises concerns about accuracy, transparency and whether outputs can be traced back to underlying market data or reporting. By stressing parity between mobile and desktop, Bloomberg appears to be positioning the mobile product as an extension of an existing institutional workflow rather than a standalone chatbot.

Personalisation focus

The personalisation update adds another layer to that strategy. Users can now describe their job, role, focus area and other preferences in a profile that shapes how ASKB responds. Those settings apply across devices, so interactions should remain aligned whether a user is at a desk or working from a handset.

Bloomberg also indicated that more mobile features are in development, including the ability for ASKB to retrieve an investor's own worksheets and identify news most relevant to that user. Those additions would push the tool further into personalised market monitoring and research management.

ASKB on mobile is available for enabled Bloomberg Anywhere subscribers using the Bloomberg Professional app on iOS and Android phones and tablets. Profile personalisation and cross-device continuity are already live, and the iOS and iPadOS design update has also been introduced.

Bloomberg has used artificial intelligence in financial information systems since 2009, applying technologies including machine learning, natural language processing, information retrieval and generative models across its products.