Canadians should be cautious using AI for financial planning, experts say

As people are turning to AI for things like meal planning and workout routines, financial advisers are saying people should take AI financial guidance cautiously.

As Canadians increasingly turn to AI chatbots for help with everyday tasks like meal planning, workout routines and even mapping out vacation itineraries, some are also using it to help manage their money.

“It’s a personal financial assistant,” said Martin Dasko, a content creator focused on personal finance.

One way Dasko uses AI is to set up savings plans for upcoming vacations by giving ChatGPT a prompt about his savings target and asking for a plan on how to achieve that amount within a specific timeline.

“It’ll give you a monthly plan to follow,” he said. “It’s all in one spot … You can get a table, a chart and it’s easier than ever.”

In the age of do-it-yourself investing and robo-advisers, AI chatbots have become another go-to for many young Canadians to set up budgets and map out financial goals. But experts say you need to have a solid sense of your finances first in order to get suitable answers.

“There is a little bit of work that the individual needs to do to be confident and accurate in the numbers that it produces,” said Sun Life financial planner Katelyn Aitcheson of AI chatbots.

That means knowing the basics such as the difference between your fixed and variable expenses, recurring versus one-time expenses and even what your net worth is.

Aitcheson recalled a client who recently bought a new home and turned to a generative AI chatbot to help decide whether to get life insurance or mortgage insurance for the house.