Nearly half of all Australian investors are turning to artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT and Copilot for financial advice, a new survey reveals.
The study by Chartered Accountants found 48 per cent of investors are using AI tools to help make decisions on shares and investment portfolios.
Almost 50 per cent of investors had used tools, including ChatGPT and Co-Pilot, to guide investment decisions and 81 per cent were “somewhat satisfied” with the information AI provided, according to the survey of 1000 investors with more than $10,000 in the stock market.
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Chief Economist for CA ANZ Professor Richard Holden said he’s not surprised by the results.
“We’ve seen an increase in most fields our private lives and our business lives and this is clearly no exception,” Holden said.
“This is the seventh year we’ve done this survey. I suspect in the eighth and ninth year we’ll see that push significantly higher.”
Lel Smits taught herself how to invest 15 years ago.
Now, she’s on the board of directors for the Australian Shareholders’ Association.
“It hasn’t always been easy for me because I definitely was not raised with financial literacy,” she said.
She uses AI as a tool, for research, as a radar on sentiment and to assess risk.
“When there is a global event and you hold a portfolio, you may be interested in really going through some scenarios that AI can help put together for you to understand what the repercussions will mean for your investments.”
Scott Phillips from The Motley Fool stressed the importance of using AI as a tool only, and not letting it pick your stocks.
“Probably the best advice, is don’t take advice from AI. Use it to inform your decisions, not make them for you,” he said.
The survey also revealed that younger investors, aged 18 to 29, are more likely to use AI.
Male investors are more likely to use AI extensively, with 15 per cent of men compared to 9 per cent of women.
As part of the survey, investors were also asked what they thought was the biggest risk to the Australian economy.
Last year they ranked inflation as number one, this year they said the global political landscape.
“It is probable if anything is going to derail us in the next 6 to 9 months, it will be those global factors,” Phillips said.
“Think about the impact of tariffs, think about potentially the impact of US recession and or a US inflationary outbreak.
“Either or both of those things would have a ripple effect on the Australian economy, as it would around the rest of the world.”
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