- 40% of Americans say they think GenAI could help them the most with their finances, above all other categories.
- Nearly half of Americans (45%) who have used GenAI before say they would trust GenAI to help them manage their finances.
- 43% say they would be willing to use GenAI to manage their finances if it would eliminate their money problems.
Since the launch of ChatGPT, generative AI (GenAI) has taken the world by storm. Early adopters have used the tool to generate everything from music and art to breakup texts, emails and performance reviews, demonstrating there’s seemingly nothing the human-like tool can’t do. Now, as companies work to implement GenAI into their products, many await the more practical use cases of the technology and how it can be used to solve real world problems. And, if it’s up to consumers, they want to use it for their finances.
That is according to a new study conducted by Qualtrics on behalf of Intuit Credit Karma. According to the study, 40% of Americans think GenAI could help most with their finances, that’s more than food and nutrition (27%), health (27%) and workplace productivity (21%). It makes sense consumers would lean on GenAI to help manage their money considering 38% have unanswered questions about how to manage their finances. To minimize financial stress, 43% of Americans say they would be willing to use GenAI to manage their finances if it would eliminate their money problems. This number jumps to 57% among those who have used GenAI before.
When asked what areas of their finances consumers would use GenAI’s help, they say they’d use it to pay down debt (27%), budget and manage expenses (26%), save for retirement and optimize savings (25%). Beyond that, consumers are drawn to other aspects of GenAI, including being able to have their financial questions answered around the clock (44%) and being able to instantly understand their complete financial profile across multiple accounts and investments (30%). These are things human financial advisors lack today, according to respondents.
Not all Americans have used GenAI, but many have heard of it. Regardless, there’s an appetite for the technology among both groups with many believing it could help them better manage their money. According to the study, more than two thirds of Americans (69%) have heard of GenAI, but just over a quarter (26%) have used it before. Of those who have not used the technology, 34% say they are likely to use it in the future. Regardless of if they’ve used the technology or not, a quarter of Americans say they would trust GenAI to help them manage their finances. This number jumps to 45% for those who have used GenAI before. What’s more, more than one-third of Americans (34%) who have used GenAI say they would trust GenAI more than humans to manage their finances.
When it comes to consumers’ experience using GenAI, 69% say the information generated by AI was accurate and 52% say it was very helpful or extremely helpful. On the flip side, some consumers have faced issues with the generated content, including a lack of personalization (27%), inconsistent quality (26%) and redundancy (23%). This emphasizes the importance of refining the technology to build trust with consumers.
To achieve this, consumers are looking to institutions they trust, such as banks (30%), tech companies (21%) and personal finance apps they already use (20%), to provide a GenAI-powered financial management tool. Their top priorities when it comes to establishing trust with GenAI include security and privacy – meaning the technology is regulated and secure and their personal information is protected – (37%), as well as making sure the information and data sources are credible and accurate (35%) and that the information used to generate recommendations is based on their individual finances (26%).
“It’s encouraging to hear consumers are curious about the potential of Generative AI to help them make financial progress and we’re excited about the prospect of leveraging this revolutionary technology to help our more than 120 million members in the U.S. solve one of their hardest problems – their finances,” said Supriya Gupta, vice president of product at Credit Karma. “Trusted institutions like banks, fintechs and technology companies have an opportunity to deliver on their promise of helping people make meaningful financial progress through highly personalized, AI-generated experiences. Together, with Intuit, who has been invested in transforming into an AI expert platform for the last five years, we’re uniquely positioned to deliver on this vision.”
Methodology:
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Qualtrics on behalf of Intuit Credit Karma between July 6, 2023 and July 7, 2023 among 1,004 adults ages 18 and older.