TL;DR
40% of Britons are using AI chatbots for financial advice, driven by a growing gap in affordable human advice. Sky News tested ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini with £16,000 in savings — and a Hargreaves Lansdown strategist found all three gave US-biased, incomplete recommendations with no consumer protection if things go wrong.
The advice gap is pushing people to AI
The proportion of human financial advisers accepting clients with less than £50,000 in investable assets has halved from 52% to 25% over six years, according to Schroders data. Those only serving clients with £200,000 or more trebled from 11% to 30%.
That gap is pushing younger investors online. Last year, 65% of Gen Z and 61% of millennials said they used AI for help with personal finances, according to a Finder survey.
“There’s nothing to stop it putting out rubbish or putting out things that are completely inappropriate for the consumer,” said Sophie Legrand-Green, head of policy at the Investing and Saving Alliance (TISA) and former FCA lead associate.
How the chatbots performed
Sky News asked all three chatbots how to invest £16,000 — the UK average savings — and took the results to Hargreaves Lansdown’s chief investment strategist, Emma Wall.
Copilot produced 25 recommendations but was heavily US-centric, with stock descriptions that lacked risk analysis. Wall said the recommendations were “missing any discussion on key risks.”
ChatGPT doubled up on US exposure, allocating to both a US tracker fund and a global fund that was already 65% US stocks. It recommended 10% in UK property, which Wall said was inadvisable given current market pressures, and 10% in cash, which she considered excessive in a falling-rate environment.
Gemini highlighted growth themes but failed to match them with specific investment vehicles. Wall noted it mentioned commodities but offered “no vehicles to choose from,” leaving uninformed investors likely to make poor choices.
FCA’s “once-in-a-generation” reform
The FCA is planning a new category called “targeted support” — ready-made suggestions based on common scenarios like retirement income or excess savings. It would sit between generic information and full personalised advice, at a lower cost.
“Targeted support will be game-changing. It means millions of people can get extra help to make better financial decisions,” said Sarah Pritchard, FCA deputy chief executive.
Looking forward
The findings highlight both the promise and the risk of AI-powered financial guidance. Until regulatory frameworks catch up, UK consumers using chatbots for investment decisions have no protection if advice goes wrong — a gap the FCA’s planned reforms aim to narrow but may not fully close.