FINRA Foundation Examines Whether Consumers Trust AI for Financial Information
In a new Consumer Insights Report, the FINRA Investor Education Foundation ("FINRA Foundation") found that "consumers trust financial professionals more than AI when it comes to financial information."
The Report, titled "The machines are coming (with personal finance information). Do we trust them?," was based on a study of 1,000 adults in the US who were asked about the trustworthiness of hypothesized artificial intelligence-generated financial information compared to information provided by a financial professional. In the Report, the FINRA Foundation surveyed adults on topics including financial homeownership, projected stock and bond performance, portfolio allocation, and savings and debt information.
On homeownership, more respondents trusted information on homeownership "when they were told a financial professional had provided it, and more distrusted it when AI [was cited] as the source." The FINRA Foundation noted that this was not true of "Black/African American consumers, where a larger proportion trusted the homeownership information when it came from AI (71 percent) rather than from a financial professional (49 percent)."
On projected stock and bond performance and on relative portfolio allocations for men and women, respondents generally equally trusted hypothetical information from AI and financial professionals, though "men trusted the investing information [more] when they were told it came from AI (37 percent) rather than from a financial professional (27 percent)."
On savings and debt information, specifically, "whether young adults should prioritize emergency savings over paying down credit card debt," respondents trusted information offered by both financial professionals and AI equally. The FINRA Foundation found, however, that "a greater proportion of Black respondents more frequently trusted the information when it came from a financial professional (69 percent) compared to AI (48 percent), as did those earning incomes under $75k annually (63 percent, compared to 54 percent of those earning $75k or more annually)."