Most young Britons trust AI to predict financial trends, study shows

By Puja Sharma

Trust in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve financial knowledge and management is growing among young people, according to new data from the smart money app Plum.

Its research of 2,000 UK adults found 61% of those aged 18-34 years old are comfortable with AI making financial predictions for them. Young people are also the most confident in using data to save money, with 45% happy to share their data for this purpose compared to just 15% of those aged years old meanwhile, half (50%) between 18 to 34-year-olds said they felt comfortable trusting AI to make decisions on savings and investments for them. This could indicate that this generation may make the boldest move yet away from traditional financial advice and towards 34-year-old solo advisers or money management apps.

These results show that young people see many uses for AI beyond financial services, and are substantially more open-minded to novel uses than respondents from older age groups. However, skepticism about the benefits of AI remains across age groups. Only 1 in 5 (18%) felt that they could benefit from financial apps that use AI, although, for young people, this rises to 1 in 4 (24%).

Furthermore, nearly half (46%) across all age groups felt that they didn’t understand how AI could impact their life for the better. This indicates that while people recognise the benefits of AI within specific contexts, they do not necessarily see it as a benefit more generally.

Plum’s CEO and co-founder, Victor Trokoudes, said, “Your first thought when you hear the words ‘artificial intelligence’ can be the Hollywood-inspired futuristic robot that can think like a human and take over the world. But what we’re starting to see in the real world, useful applications of AI that benefit your everyday life. They might not be taking over the world, but this type of AI is having a democratising effect on financial services, which is exciting. Smart technology means everyone can cheaply access services that previously would have been gate-kept by those with enough money to afford expensive services or advisers.

“That said, our data still shows that more education is required so that people understand better the technology they are using, even among younger people. While they might be comfortable using Artificial Intelligence in a specific context, they still struggle to understand the wider benefits of adopting technology like AI in general. This speaks to a wider issue we face in the FinTech sector. As an industry, we need to make sure we are educating our customers and not alienating them with complexity and jargon, so as many people as possible can benefit from the opportunities that AI brings.”

Key Findings:

• Around 60% of 18 to 34-year-olds felt happy with AI predicting what they should read or listen to, vs 43% of all ages;
• About 58% felt comfortable with AI being used to prevent fraud or for facial recognition, vs 52% of all ages;
• Over 56% would use AI for personalised shopping, vs 40% of all ages.
• One in two aged 18-34 feel comfortable trusting AI to make decisions on savings and investments
• One in four feel they could benefit from financial apps which use AI
• However, only 18% think AI benefits them on a day-to-day basis