And, the advice is likely wrong
I recently read a brilliant LinkedIn post that got me thinking about how often we rely on advice that may very likely be completely wrong for us.
Picture this.
It is a warm evening in the south of France. The rosé is perfectly chilled, the cicadas are singing their hearts out, and you are finally feeling relaxed. It is that golden hour when the stresses of work fade away, and you have a moment to actually think.
Naturally, your mind drifts to the future.
Maybe you start wondering about your pension, or you recall a conversation about tax residency rules for expats. Because it’s post-COVID, you don’t reach for a textbook or call a professional immediately. You pull out your phone and ask an AI tool for a quick answer.
It gives you a response in seconds. It sounds professional. It sounds authoritative. It sounds like it knows exactly what it is talking about.
But here is the sobering reality check.
Recent research published in the Financial Times tested AI tools with 100 finance questions. The results were enough to put you off your dinner.
According to the study, over 50% of questions about investing and pensions were answered incorrectly by AI. Even worse, nearly 30% of the answers were outright deceptive or misleading.
Let’s put that into perspective with a few real-life scenarios. (Thanks for some of the ideas, Edward Roebuck!)
- If a mechanic fixed your puncture and told you there was a 50% chance the tyre would blow out on the motorway, would you put your family in that car?
- If a doctor told you there was a 1 in 2 chance the surgery would go wrong, would you sign the consent form?
- If a restaurant had a sign on the door saying, “half our customers get food poisoning,” would you order the plat du jour?
Of course not. You would run a mile. (I know I would!)
Yet we still see people making massive, life-changing decisions based on a quick chat with a bot because “ChatGPT said so.”
Well, here’s the difference between data and wisdom.
AI is a tool, not a financial planner. It is fantastic at summarising emails or writing a recipe, but it struggles with nuance.
And if there is one thing that defines the lives of my clients, it is nuance.
An AI chatbot can scrape data, but it doesn’t understand context. It doesn’t know that you are worried about funding your daughter’s university fees in the US while living in France.
It doesn’t know your risk tolerance changes when you think about quitting your high-pressure corporate job. It certainly doesn’t understand the delicate interplay of cross-border compliance between the UK, South Africa, and France.
It can recite the tax code (mostly…), but it can’t build a strategy that lets you sleep at night.
This is why we still live in an era where it might be wiser to stick to human intelligence, especially when it comes to the big stuff like your future, your security, and your legacy.
We might not be able to process a million data points in a millisecond, but we know when to tell you “no,” and we definitely care more about the outcome than a chatbot does.
So, by all means, use AI to help you plan your next holiday or translate a menu. But for your financial future, let’s have a real conversation instead.
If you want a second opinion from a real person, feel free to reach out.
