Nearly four in ten Britons have turned to artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini for personal financial guidance, according to 2025 research from comparison platform Finder.
The figures reveal a striking trend: one in six has sought investing tips and stock recommendations from generative AI, whilst one in seven has used it to navigate the volatile world of digital assets.
Ortec Finance, which recently delved into what the rising use of AI for advice shows about consumer demands, noted that the appetite for digital financial guidance is undeniable. Yet, as Ortec Finance points out, the quality of what consumers are actually receiving in return is far more questionable.
Chatbots powered by large language models are only as useful as the prompts they are given, and the average consumer, typically without a strong financial background, is unlikely to know what information to provide in order to receive meaningful, tailored guidance.
When a qualified financial adviser meets a client for the first time, the process is exhaustive by design. They explore the client’s personal circumstances, family situation, attitude to risk, long-term financial goals, investment time horizons, and the full picture of their assets and liabilities. That depth of understanding underpins every recommendation they make. Ortec Finance argues that no chatbot interaction is likely to replicate it, particularly when most users are entering little more than a few lines of text into a search bar.
A Sky News experiment illustrated this clearly. Researchers put £16,000, roughly the average savings held by a UK adult, to ChatGPT, Microsoft Co-Pilot and Google Gemini and asked what should be done with it. The results were underwhelming: familiar funds were flagged without meaningful context, diversification was inconsistently handled, and there were notable contradictions between stated investment strategies and the actual products recommended.
Yet the instinct driving consumers towards these tools should not be dismissed. Ortec Finance argues that people are clearly motivated to improve their financial situations and are actively seeking out ways to do so. The problem is not the desire to engage, it is that they have largely been locked out of the traditional advice market by cost.
That is precisely where the concept of targeted support becomes significant, according to Ortec Finance. A newly regulated activity in the UK, targeted support would occupy the space between generic financial guidance and full personalised advice. Under the regime, authorised firms would be permitted to make recommendations to groups of consumers sharing common characteristics and financial needs.
It falls short of comprehensive financial planning, but Ortec Finance contends it addresses a genuine and urgent gap in the market. The surge in AI usage for financial guidance is ultimately a signal the industry should heed closely, Ortec Finance concludes. Consumers are ready to act. The question now is whether financial services firms will meet them with something better than a chatbot.
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