Nearly 60% of U.S. affluent investors use AI for financial tasks

Nearly 60% of U.S. affluent investors use AI for financial and investment tasks, according to a June survey by HSBC cited by Wealth Solutions Report.

The June survey also found 7% of U.S. investors cited AI as the most influential factor in their last investment decision. Another 38% of U.S. investors said they prefer a hybrid of AI and advisors.

For advisors, that 38% is the group most likely to arrive at a meeting with a chatbot's second opinion on the table. Experts quoted by Wealth Solutions Report say the response should not be defensive. Advisors should respond "by first taking a deep breath and reminding themselves that this is not a threat or an attack on their credibility," said Brendan Frazier, host of The Human Side of Money podcast. He likened it to patients who look up symptoms on WebMD before seeing a doctor: the reading can make them better prepared for the visit. Anshuman Mehta, chief product officer at Domify, said a conflicting AI recommendation is a discovery opportunity, a prompt to ask whether the client's goals, risk tolerance or circumstances have shifted in ways they told a chatbot first.

The survey leaves the practical question open: how much of the client conversation an advisor is willing to rebuild around a tool the client is already using.