On June 4, the FINRA Investor Education Foundation published a new study which revealed consumers may be more likely to trust personal finance advice from AI-generated sources over financial professionals.

The report emphasized the importance of understanding consumer perceptions of AI, particularly in the context of financial decision-making. The findings suggested while financial professionals are generally trusted more than AI, there are certain areas like savings, where some consumers showed a preference for AI-generated advice. The study surveyed over 1,000 U.S. adults and compared the perceived trustworthiness of AI-generated financial advice to that of human financial professionals across four areas: homeownership, future performance of stocks and bonds, portfolio allocation, and savings and debt.

The main insights from the report were:

• Reliance on AI for financial guidance is low currently.
• Information about homeownership was generally trusted regardless of the source; however, trust was higher when the advice was attributed to financial professionals.
• About one-third of all participants trusted AI-generated predictions of stock and bond performance.
• Individuals with higher self-rated financial knowledge showed a greater tendency to trust AI over a financial professional.
• Regarding portfolio allocation advice, information from financial professionals was trusted more than from AI.
• Savings and debt advice was trusted in general, whether it came from AI or a financial professional; a larger proportion of Black respondents trusted a financial professional over AI.