What AI means for investors, advice, and policy

AI is expanding access to financial guidance, but investors mainly use it for exploration and remain far more willing to trust human advisors with consequential decisions.

• Vanguard surveyed 6,686 investors in June 2026: 32% had used AI for personal finance, investing, or retirement planning, rising to 43% among Gen Z and millennials and falling to 15% among baby boomers and older investors.
• Adoption is concentrated among more literate investors: 37% of those with high AI and financial literacy used AI for guidance, versus 12% of those with low literacy, while 63% of the most knowledgeable investors still abstained.
• Trust remains weak: 63% of Gen Z, millennial, and Gen X investors reported low or no trust in AI guidance, compared with 78% of boomers and older investors; fewer than 10% in any generation reported low trust in human guidance.
• AI is used mainly for low-stakes tasks: 61% of younger AI users used it to start learning about a topic and 61% as a sounding board, while only 4% used it as a decision-maker and 12% as a replacement for a human advisor.
• The risks include a regulatory gap, hallucinated finance citations ranging from 20% to 77% in a cited study, biased recommendations, privacy failures, and excessive focus on risk tolerance rather than an investor’s full financial situation.

Takeaway: AI is more likely to complement than replace human advice, but closing the advice gap will require investor education, stronger safeguards, human oversight, and trusted institutional providers.