Retirement Savers, Investors Believe AI Will Change Everything

A wide majority of investors believe artificial intelligence (AI) will be an investing and trading game-changer and help advisors better serve clients, yet most (thankfully) also believe AI will never replace human advice.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management recently announced the results of its quarterly individual investor pulse survey. The results reveal insights into how investors view AI and possible investing use cases: 

• Most believe AI will be revolutionary for financial services. The wide majority (72%) of investors believe that AI is a game changer for investors and traders, and nearly three out of four (74%) believe the technology will help Financial Advisors (FA) better serve their clients. In fact, over three out of five (63%) would be interested in working with a Financial Advisor that leverages it. 
• But AI will not take the place of human guidance. Over four out of five investors (82%) believe that artificial intelligence will never replace human guidance. And nearly nine out of ten (88%) agree that the human-to-human FA relationship is extremely important. 
• Enthusiasm is most pronounced among younger investors. In particular, 35–44-year-old investors are higher than the general population in their views that AI will be a game changer (87% v. 72%), that it will help FAs better serve clients (89% v. 74%), their interest in working with an FA who leverages it (85% v. 63%), and their belief that AI will not replace the FA/Client relationship (84% v. 82%). 

“While AI is clearly groundbreaking, and we are just scratching the surface of its potential impact within financial services, this data aligns with an insight we’ve known for some time: The clients who are most engaged with their Financial Advisors are also the most satisfied,” Jeff McMillan, Head of Analytics, Data, and Innovation for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, said in a statement. “Within this context, AI should be viewed not as a replacement of human guidance, but as a powerful tool to help turbocharge a Financial Advisor’s practice management and client interaction capabilities.”