A third of Canadians are using artificial intelligence to help manage their finances and investments, according to findings from a BMO survey.
Among those who reported using AI for finance-related purposes, the most common uses were:
- learning about personal finance topics (45%);
- creating or updating household budgets (43%);
- identifying new investment strategies (42%);
- saving (40%); and
- creating or updating financial plans (40%).
More than half of gen-Z respondents (55%) said they leverage AI to manage their finances and investments — more than any other generation.
“The increased adoption of AI-powered tools coincides with gen Z’s ongoing life changes and their growing concerns about their finances,” a BMO release said.
For example, in the last six months, 24% of gen-Z respondents attended university or college, 20% switched jobs, 15% needed to make a large purchase such as a car or home, and 13% started a business.
Further, 91% of gen-Z respondents said concern about their overall financial situations is the leading source of financial anxiety, followed by fear of unknown expenses (90%), housing costs (86%), and keeping up with monthly bills (82%).
More than half of all survey respondents said they believe AI can help people make more informed financial decisions (52%) and that it makes financial planning more accessible (51%).
But clients likely still require some human guidance when it comes to behavioural finance: More than two-thirds of respondents (68%) said AI can’t understand how emotions influence financial planning.
The online survey involved 2,500 Canadian adults, contacted by Ipsos from June 3 to June 20. The survey sample reflected the Canadian population’s composition according to census parameters. The polling industry’s professional body, the Canadian Research Insights Council, says online surveys can’t be assigned a margin of error because they don’t randomly sample the population.