Most Brits don’t trust AI chatbots when it comes to pensions: our uncle Steve Webb gives his opinion

People of all ages are shying away from the idea of ​​asking AI to help them make decisions about pensions, new research shows.

While people are open to letting an AI tool determine the household budget or shop for the best savings deals, the vast majority believe that pensions are off-limits.

Even among 18 to 34-year-olds, who are generally more comfortable using AI to manage their money, only one in five say they would ask for help with retirement.

That confidence drops to one in six among 35 to 54-year-olds and to only one in twenty among those over 55, according to Aegon research.

“The findings suggest that while consumers are increasingly willing to use AI as part of their financial toolbox, retirement planning is viewed very differently,” the pension firm said.

‘For many people, pensions are not only tied to money, but also to long-term security, independence and expectations for later life.’

People who use AI chatbots to ask questions about money face a dilemma because unless they know the answer in advance, they can’t tell whether the information they’re given can be trusted.

You should therefore be prepared to do further research to verify what AI is telling you.

Former Pensions Secretary Steve Webb, now a partner at LCP, gives tips on using AI below. He explains how he typically asks a tool to give him a source, preferably an official one like gov.uk, when asking questions to help him make further checks.

Research from Aegon shows that 65 percent of people would never ask AI to make a financial decision for them.

That rises to 88 percent among people over 55, who were by far the most skeptical about asking AI questions about any money topic, including household budgets.

About 56 percent of 35-to-54-year-olds and 41 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds would also avoid AI completely when it comes to their finances.

The pensions firm surveyed 2,000 adults this summer, weighted to be representative of the UK population.

Dr. Tom Mathar, head of Money:Mindshift and host of a podcast of the same name at Aegon, said: “Younger adults are very familiar with AI, but retirement remains the financial area where they are least willing to hand over decision-making.

‘Retirement planning is fundamentally different from budgeting or managing day-to-day finances. It’s not just about money.

“It’s about the kind of life people want to live, how long that money should last, and balancing the needs of their current selves with the hopes of their future selves.”

Tips on using AI for your money questions

Steve Webb, who this year celebrates his tenth anniversary as This is Money’s retirement-pained uncle, offers the following advice to people using AI chatbots to extract money information.

Personally, I have no problem using AI tools, and sometimes I do that myself, maybe when I’m researching something and want to track down an article or document, he writes.

But you should be very careful before relying on AI for financial planning. Here are a few things to think about.

1. AI can simply do things wrong – this is known as ‘hallucinating’. There have been many times when I asked an AI tool a question and received an answer that I knew was wrong.

This is manageable if you know a topic well, but if the reason you are using AI is because it is an unfamiliar topic, how can you know if the answer is correct or not?

2. For this reason, I usually ask the AI ​​tool to provide me with a source – preferably an official one such as the gov.uk website – so that I can independently verify whether what I have been told is true.

3. The answer you get depends very much on the question you ask, and it may be worth experimenting with asking the question in different ways to see if this produces any significant differences in the answer.

Do you have a pension question?

You can contact Steve Webb at pensionquestions@thisismoney.co.uk and also browse through its hundreds answers for readers here.

When you’re on that web page, try pressing ‘control F’ (‘command F’ on a Mac) and entering a few keywords to find out if Steve has already written a column about what you want to know.

Steve’s most popular columns on the AOW are compiled here and the one about there are private pensions.

Steve gets a lot of mail, so if he doesn’t answer your question personally in a future column, you can also contact MoneyHelper, an impartial, government-backed organization that provides free pension help to the public. MoneyHelper can be found here and the number is 0800 011 3797.

You can also check These are Money’s retirement guides. Here are 10 that cover the most common questions.

What should I do with my pension when I retire?

When will I receive my AOW?

How do I protect my pension against the tax authorities?

How do I invest my pension when I retire?

Am I eligible for a pension discount?

Will my pensions be subject to inheritance tax?

How do I track down an old pension?

What should I do with my pension during my maternity leave?

How should pensions be divided in the event of a divorce?

What should I do with my pension if I am self-employed?