Artificial Intelligence has taken the world by storm. Here’s how Canadians are using it to help with their finances
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has had many breakthroughs in the past few years, and more and more households are beginning to incorporate it in their daily routines. The BMO Real Financial Progress Index reveals a growing number of Canadians, notably Gen Z, are using artificial intelligence (AI) to help manage their finances and investments.
Among the 33% of Canadians using AI to help manage their finances, the most common uses include:
- Learning more about personal finance topics (45%),
- Creating and/or updating household budgets (43%),
- Identifying new investment strategies (42%),
- Building savings (40%), and
- Creating and/or updating their financial plans (40%).
While AI is helping Canadians manage some aspects of finances, over two thirds (68%) say AI cannot understand how emotions influence financial planning.
“AI is a transformative technology that can instantly analyze information and generate ideas, but people’s relationship with money is complex, personal and emotional. By making it easier to help manage finances, AI is proving a powerful tool to build financial literacy and make informed financial decisions, and together with guidance from a professional advisor, more Canadians can be empowered to conveniently manage their money, achieve their goals and make real financial progress.”
– Gayle Ramsay
Head, Everyday Banking Segment & Customer Growth, BMO
How Canadians Are Using AI
The survey highlights how AI is continuing to shape how Canadians learn, work, and communicate, including:
- Reshaping Research: More than half (54%) are using AI to ask questions about topics of interest and 37% are using the technology for data analysis.
- Productivity Planning: Over a third are leveraging AI to build business, travel, exercise and meal plans (36%) and manage their schedules (36%).
- Changing Content Creation: Many Canadians are using AI in their creative process including developing written drafts (41%) and photo and/or video editing (39%)
- Accessible Intelligence: More than half believe AI can help people make more informed financial decisions (52%) and makes financial planning more accessible for everyone (51%).
- Optimistic Outlook: Many of those who do not currently use it for personal financial management are considering using the technology to learn more about personal finance topics (30%), increase their savings (28%), find new investment strategies (27%), create and/or update their household budgets (27%) and financial plans (25%), and for retirement planning (22%).
The AI Generation Gap
As Gen Z Canadians begin navigating life changes, over half (55%) are leveraging AI to plan for upcoming financial milestones – more than any generation. Gen Z are the most likely to use AI to ask questions about topics of interest (79%), create written drafts (72%), build business, travel, exercise and/or meal plans (63%), and manage their finances and investments (55%).
The increased adoption of AI-powered tools coincides with Gen Z’s ongoing life changes and their growing concerns about their finances. In the last six months, 24% of Gen Z attended university or college, 20% switched jobs, 15% needed to make a large purchase such as a car, home, etc., and 13% started a business. However, 91% of Gen Z say concerns about their overall financial situation is the leading source of financial anxiety, followed by fear of unknown expenses (90%), housing costs (86%), and keeping up with monthly bills (82%).
61% of Gen Z believe AI can help people make more informed financial decisions and 53% are confident AI tools can help them make real financial progress.
To learn more about how BMO can help customers make financial progress, visit www.bmo.com/main/personal.