Younger consumers in the United Kingdom now place more confidence in artificial intelligence than in traditional media or online personalities when they look for help with investing.
That finding comes from new research by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which surveyed people aged 18 to 40 who already hold investments or plan to buy them within a year.Just over half of those respondents, 56 per cent, said they trust AI tools.
That figure sits above the 47 per cent who trust television and radio, the 46 per cent who trust newspapers, and the 29 per cent who trust social media influencers.
The same study found that four in five less experienced investors have already used AI when deciding where to put their money. Three-quarters expect to rely on these systems even more over the next twelve months.
The shift reflects how quickly general-purpose chatbots have become part of everyday financial research.
Users turn to them to decode jargon, scan company information and compare options without paying for a regulated adviser. For a generation that grew up online, an always-available digital assistant can feel more immediate than a broadcast or a printed article.
The same research, however, highlights a gap between usage and understanding.
Forty-four per cent of those surveyed believed that AI-generated financial information is regulated by the FCA. It is not.
General-purpose systems such as ChatGPT and Gemini sit outside the regulator’s perimeter.
As a result, people who follow that output alone are unlikely to qualify for compensation from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or to take a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service if something goes wrong.
Nearly a third of respondents thought those safety nets would still apply.
Thirty-eight per cent said they would be comfortable making an investment decision based solely on what an AI produced.
There are signs of caution as well.
Seventy-three per cent of younger adults recognised that AI outputs can be inaccurate, and 86 per cent said they understood the need to check the sources the tools cite.
Those figures suggest many users treat chatbots as a first draft rather than a final authority.
Lucy Castledine, the FCA’s director of consumer investments, has framed the technology as a useful starting point rather than a substitute for judgement.
AI can help people research companies, unpack technical language and explore choices before they commit money, she noted.
The essential caveat is that users must know what protection they do and do not have.
The regulator’s own consumer guidance makes the same distinction. Tools built by authorised firms to deliver regulated advice may fall under existing rules. Off-the-shelf chatbots generally do not.
The FCA also points people toward its InvestSmart pages, which set out basic questions every investor should ask and remind users that no model can reliably forecast future returns.
The broader picture is a financial information market that has splintered. Broadcast and print still command respect, but they no longer lead among younger investors.
Influencers trail further behind. AI has moved into the space in between: widely used, relatively trusted, and still poorly understood when it comes to legal safeguards.
For now, the practical message is straightforward. Treat AI as a research aid, verify what it says, and remember that the usual investor protections attach to regulated advice, not to a conversation with a general-purpose chatbot.
