Trust vs. Use: How Consumers Feel About Adopting AI

Artificial Intelligence has been top of mind for many in the financial industry over the last few years but questions still linger, like: Do consumers trust AI to help them with their finances? If so, how are consumers using AI? 

MX’s latest consumer research shows that, while many consumers would trust AI to help with certain finance-related tasks, relatively low numbers of consumers are actually currently using AI to help with their finances. While we did not ask specifically about the reason, it’s clear there is an opportunity for financial providers to do more to educate consumers about AI (they may be using it and not even know it) and incorporate AI into financial wellness tools. 

Here are the key takeaways from our research.

1. AI Adoption is More Common With Younger Generations

Attitudes about technology have often been divided along generational lines — with younger generations more apt to adopt technology and older generations remaining holdouts. And, AI is no exception. Today, only 22% of all consumers say they are using AI to help with their finances. Holding true to the generational trend, Millennials and Gen Z remain the most tech-forward generations. Thirty-seven percent of Millennial consumers and 27% of Gen Z say they use AI to help with their finances, compared to just 2% of Baby Boomers.

2. High Trust Does not Mean High Use

In our previous consumer survey, we gave consumers a list of AI use cases in financial services and asked them to identify where they would trust AI to help them. In this latest research, we gave consumers the same list and asked them where they are using AI.

The results show trust in AI and use of AI don’t match up as much as you might expect — especially when considering that these findings were collected within six months of each other. For instance, the most trusted feature was reported as the least used.  Fifty-nine percent of consumers say they trust AI to help deliver proactive reminders to pay bills, save money, etc., but only 10% of respondents say they use AI for this.

3. AI Helps Consumers Look Ahead Rather Than Keep Up

While trust centered on basic functions like proactive reminders, actual usage leans into more advanced functionality. For those consumers who say they use AI to help manage their finances, the most common uses centered on financial advice: 

• Provide basic financial advice, such as how much to put in savings or pay towards debt (22%)
• Provide investment-related financial advice, such as stocks to purchase, retirement planning, etc. (15%)
• Personalized recommendations on where you can make changes to improve finances (15%)

Overall, our research shows that while many consumers would trust AI to help with their finances, most consumers are not yet adopting it into their financial lives. But, those who are using AI see huge potential to help them better reach their financial goals. The consumers that use AI want help looking ahead and planning for the future. And, they are younger and more willing to trust AI to help them achieve their goals. 

While we don’t know if this data is simply because these services aren’t available to most consumers or consumers don’t know they are using AI, it’s clear AI can be a powerful tool to help consumers achieve financial strength. 

But, AI is only worthwhile if it is powered by quality data. So, looking ahead, financial providers will benefit most by taking a beat and building the right data foundation to fuel better AI use cases.

To read more insights on financial apps, data sharing, and more, check out our full research report.