A new report finds that investors still place more trust in their financial professionals than in artificial intelligence, despite the growing popularity of AI.
The report was released by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s Investor Education Foundation. It involved over 1,000 adults in the United States, and found that very few consumers knowingly turn to AI for information on their personal finances.
63% of the respondents consulted with financial professionals when making financial decisions, 56% discussed these matters with friends and family, and just 5% said they used AI.
“As AI continues to be integrated into consumers’ everyday lives, it is vital to get a better understanding of how they perceive it and how they are using the technology to help make financial decisions,” said FINRA Foundation President Gerri Walsh. “This report found that while more consumers indicated trusting individual financial professionals than AI, there are instances where some consumers preferred AI-generated information related to topics like homeownership and saving. These perceptions could change with time, so it will be crucial for the financial services industry to continue to better understand how consumers interact with AI to better equip them with the resources and knowledge to make sound financial decisions.”
When it came to home ownership information, respondents broadly trusted the information they were given regardless of the source. But more people trusted it when told it was provided by a financial professional, and more distrusted when told AI was the source.
About one-third of those responding trusted information about stock and bond performance, whether it came from a financial professional or AI. But the FINRA report found that white men and people with a higher level of self-assessed financial knowledge were more likely to trust AI than a financial professional.
About 37% trusted information regarding portfolio information when the source was a financial professional, compared to 30% who trusted AI.
Information regarding savings and debt was trusted about equally between financial professionals and AI, but 69% of Black respondents trusted the information when it came from a financial professional compared to 48% from AI.
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