UK Study Reveals Widespread Inaccuracies in AI Financial Advice as Consumer Trust Remains High

Brits believe the bots even though they spout nonsense

Consumer group Which? warns AI assistants can dish out unclear, risky, or downright daft advice AI assistants can sometimes provide misleading or incorrect answers. However, almost half of British consumers using the services put more faith in them than they maybe should. Consumer stalwart Which? put the tools through their paces and found that the consumer advice dispensed could be unclear, risky, or downright dangerous if followed. It's something the IT world is all too familiar with. AI-powered assistants have their place, but it is also important to understand their limitations and spot arrant emissions. Which? surveyed more than 4,000 UK adults about their use of AI and also put 40 questions around consumer issues such as health, finance, and travel to six bots - ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Gemini AI Overview, Copilot, Meta AI, and Perplexity. Things did not go well. Meta's AI answered correctly just over 50 percent of the time in the tests, while the most widely used AI tool, ChatGPT, came second from bottom at 64 percent. Perplexity came top at 71 percent. While different questions might yield different results, the conclusion is clear: AI tools don't always come up with the correct answer. The problem is that consumers trust the output. According to Which?, just over half (51 percent) of the respondents use AI to search the web. Of these, almost half (47 percent) said "they trusted the information they received to a 'great' or 'reasonable' extent." Which? said the figure rose to 65 percent for frequent users. Then there were the sources used by the AI services. Where references were clear, some used old forum posts, while others relied on sources such as Reddit threads. Although these can sometimes be valid sources of information, they might not be as authoritative as the confident tone of an AI chatbot indicates. Which? found the chatbots generated wrong information all too frequently, noting: "As many as one in six (17 percent) people surveyed said they rely on AI for financial advice, yet responses to many money queries were worrying." These included tax code checks or advice on ISA allowances that could easily leave a user in hot water. Andrew Laughlin, tech expert at Which? said: "Everyday use of AI is soaring, but we've found that when it comes to getting the answers you need, the devil is in the details. "Our research uncovered far too many inaccuracies and misleading statements for comfort, especially when leaning on AI for important issues like financial or legal queries." As the use of AI assistants continues to rise, so too do the risks. While the IT industry is aware of the dangers involved - a recent analysis showed that AI-assisted developers can produce three or four times the code of their unassisted peers but also generate ten times more security issues - consumers might be forgiven for being less tech-savvy, particularly considering the hype surrounding the technology. Laughlin ended with a warning: "When using AI, always make sure to define your question clearly, and check the sources the AI is drawing answers from. For particularly complex issues, always seek professional advice - particularly for medical queries - before making major financial decisions or embarking on legal action." ®

UK consumers warned over AI chatbots giving inaccurate financial advice

Which? study of ChatGPT, Copilot and others uncovers incorrect and misleading tips on investments, tax and insurance Artificial intelligence chatbots are giving inaccurate money tips, offering British consumers misleading tax advice and suggesting they buy unnecessary travel insurance, research has revealed. Tests on the most popular chatbots found Microsoft's Copilot and ChatGPT advised breaking HMRC investment limits on Isas; ChatGPT wrongly said it was mandatory to have travel insurance to visit most EU countries; and Meta's AI gave incorrect information about how to claim compensation for delayed flights. Google's Gemini advised withholding money from a builder if a job went wrong, a move that the consumer organisation Which? said risked exposing the consumer to a claim of breach of contract. Which? said its research, conducted by putting 40 questions to the rival AI tools, "uncovered far too many inaccuracies and misleading statements for comfort, especially when leaning on AI for important issues like financial or legal queries". Meta's AI received the worst score, followed by ChatGPT; Copilot and Gemini scored slightly higher. The highest score was given to Perplexity, an AI known for specialising in search. Estimates on the number of people in the UK using AI for financial advice range from one in six to as many as half. When asked about their experiences, Guardian readers said they had recently used AI to find the best credit cards to use abroad, for advice on how to reduce investment fees, and to secure good deals on household appliances - including an artist who used it to get a good price on a ceramic kiln. Several said they were pleased with the results, but Kathryn Boyd, 65, who runs a fashion business in Wexford, Ireland, said she turned to ChatGPT for advice on her self-employed tax and it used an out-of-date code. "It just gave me all the wrong information," she said, adding that she had to correct it at least three times. "My concern is that I am very well-informed but ... other people asking the same question may easily have relied on the assumptions used by ChatGPT which were just plain wrong - wrong tax credits, wrong tax and insurance rates etc." When the Which? researchers asked the AI tools how to claim a tax refund from HMRC, ChatGPT and Perplexity presented links to premium tax-refund companies alongside the free government service, which was "worrying" as "these companies are notorious for charging high fees and adding on spurious charges". After they placed a deliberate mistake in a question about the ISA allowance, asking: "How should I invest my £25k annual ISA allowance?", ChatGPT and Copilot failed to notice the correct allowance was £20,000 and gave advice that could have led a consumer to oversubscribe, breaching HMRC rules. NEW The Financial Conduct Authority regulator said: "Unlike regulated advice provided by authorised firms, any advice provided by these general-purpose AI tools are not covered by the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme." NEWENDS In response, Google said it was transparent about the limitations of generative AI and that Gemini reminded users to double check information and consult professionals on legal, medical and financial matters. A spokesperson for Microsoft said: "With any AI system, we encourage people to verify the accuracy of content, and we remain committed to listening to feedback to improve our AI technologies." Open AI said: "Improving accuracy is something the whole industry's working on. We're making good progress and our latest default model, GPT-5, is the smartest and most accurate we've built."