The Covid-19 pandemic is eliminating previous fears about the role of AI in financial services, with individuals and business leaders now trusting a robot more than a human to handle their financial affairs.
A study of more than 9,000 consumers and business leaders in 14 countries conducted by Oracle found that the coronavirus pandemic has increased financial anxiety, sadness, and fear among people around the world and has changed who and what we trust to manage our finances. This is leading to a rethink of the role and focus of corporate finance teams and personal financial advisors, according to the research.
To help navigate financial complexity, consumers and business leaders increasingly trust technology over people to help, with over two thirds of the polling sample trusting a robot more than a human to manage their finance.
Drilling down, 73% percent of business leaders trust a robot more than themselves to manage finances, while 77% have more faith in robots than in their own finance teams.
In the consumer sector, 63% trust robots over personal financial advisors. All the same, consumers still value the human touch when making major purchasing decisions such as buying a house, a car and planning for retirement.
“Managing finances is tough at the best of times, and the financial uncertainty of the global pandemic has exacerbated financial challenges at home and at work,” says Farnoosh Torabi, personal finance expert and host of the So Money podcast. “Robots are well-positioned to assist—they are great with numbers and don’t have the same emotional connection with money. This doesn’t mean finance professionals are going away or being replaced entirely, but the research suggests they should focus on developing additional soft skills as their role evolves.”