A recent survey by TD Bank reveals a seismic shift in financial planning: 55% of Americans now use AI to manage their money, up from just 10% in 2025. That's more than the roughly 40% who consult a human financial advisor, according to Gallup.
With trillions of dollars potentially guided by chatbots, researchers at MIT and Stanford wanted to know: Is the advice any good?
"There's something dangerous about just trusting whatever the computer has to say," warns certified financial planner Luke Delorme.
The study, which collected 1,000 real user questions and fed them through chatbots, found results varied significantly based on the user's financial literacy. More sophisticated questions yielded smarter answers-potentially boosting returns by 5% over time compared with queries from less knowledgeable users.
But the research uncovered a troubling gender bias. When a chatbot knew it was talking to a woman, it recommended more conservative investments. Some of this stemmed from women asking different questions, but bias persisted even when identical prompts were given to the AI with different gender markers.
"AI tends to recommend women to take less risk," said MIT's Taha Choukhmane. The finding echoes known issues with human advisors, as NerdWallet's Sam Taube noted: "AI does not entirely solve this problem."
Separately, researchers from Harvard and Boston College analyzed thousands of articles on Seeking Alpha, a popular investing website. They found AI-assisted articles were measurably inferior-generating fewer comments, lower trading volume in the stocks they covered, and smaller average returns. The site banned AI content in 2023, with an editor warning that bots would reduce analysis to "the bot view."
As AI reaches a broader audience, experts urge caution: The quality of the advice depends heavily on the quality of the question.