EY survey of 18,000 people across 23 countries: ~49% of consumers have used AI over the past six months to support their savings and investment decisions
Gen Z and millennials the most likely groups to consult chatbots on money matters — Nearly half of global consumers are turning …
Context & Ripple Effects
This global survey extends a pattern already visible in UK research: more than half of adults in one Lloyds-commissioned study reported using generative-AI platforms for financial advice, while Fidelity found roughly half of UK investors trusted social media, finfluencers, and AI tools for financial decisions.
The generational skew matters because earlier coverage shows Gen Z led early chatbot adoption and Chinese Gen Z day traders are increasingly using chatbots for investment advice. The EY result suggests that behavior is spreading from experimentation into routine savings and investment research across markets.
First-order effects
- Consumer AI platforms become a more consequential input to retail savings and investment decisions, especially for Gen Z and millennials.
- Consumers may consult chatbots before, alongside, or instead of qualified advisers; Fidelity's earlier survey already showed markedly lower recent use of qualified advisers than trust in social and AI sources.
Second-order effects
- Banks, wealth managers, and brokerages face pressure to make their own digital guidance easier to access and to differentiate human advice where consumers need accountability or individualized help.
- Chatbot providers gain a higher-stakes consumer use case, while the quality and consistency of AI-generated financial guidance becomes more commercially important as usage broadens.
Third-order effects
- If repeated across markets, consumer finance could become an AI-mediated distribution channel: the interface that frames options may matter as much as the institution supplying the product.
- The shift also raises the likelihood of sharper scrutiny around how general-purpose chatbots are used in consequential financial decisions, particularly as younger users form durable advice habits.
The trend: Consumer AI is moving from a general information tool toward a frontline interface for consequential personal-finance decisions, with younger cohorts leading adoption.