The financial services industry is plotting how to incorporate tools like ChatGPT into its products. But humans will still be necessary to provide personal advice.Paul Weiner, an artist, has been experimenting with artificial intelligence for the past year, generating A.I.-created visual disinformation and seeing whether he can get the images to spread. But recently, he turned to ChatGPT, a chatbot that has the ability to respond to complex questions, for a much different reason: With his 30th birthday looming, he decided to ask it for advice about retirement planning.
“Maybe ChatGPT would have some answers that I might otherwise get from someone who I’d have to pay a lot of money to,” he said.
Generative A.I. like ChatGPT has knowledge workers gripping the rails, bracing for how it might affect their jobs, and consumers leaning in to see what costly services could soon be replaced with a prompt. As the investment industry turns to artificial intelligence as a financial planning and advice tool, the values of accuracy, humanity, security and accessibility are jostling for prominence. In the future, who — or what — will we be asking to advise us on some of life’s most important decisions?
ChatGPT recommended that Mr. Weiner open a Roth individual retirement account and certificates of deposit, as well as automate his savings and create a budget. He hasn’t yet opened any of the accounts or, as the chatbot also suggested, worked with a financial adviser.“It’s a lot of information that gets thrown at you pretty quickly,” Mr. Weiner said. He found the short explanations insufficient for what a C.D. does or the differences between a Roth I.R.A. and a traditional I.R.A. He concluded that speaking to a financial adviser would probably be more helpful.
