Three tips for using AI in financial planning: Manulife

AI tools can help improve your financial literacy and make it easier to stay on top of your finances by offering assistance with tasks like :

• Creating a budget
• Suggesting retirement plan contribution and savings rates
• Tracking your expenses and analyzing spending habits
• Determining how much risk someone is willing to take with investments
• Monitoring transactions to detect possible fraud
• Providing education information on financial topics
• Answering common financial questions, such as eligibility ages for CPP/QPP

While helpful, AI tools also come with potential pitfalls and must be used responsibly. Keep these tips in mind:

• Check for accuracy—Sometimes AI can give wrong answers. The answers you get may change depending on how a question is asked, and it may make assumptions about missing information. So always use the information from AI as a starting point for research and make sure it makes sense to you.
• Use your own judgment—AI can offer suggestions, but your personal goals, circumstances, and comfort level matter more. Think of AI as support—not a replacement for your own decision-making.
• Consider the source— Not all AI information is reliable. Some content may be biased, outdated, or missing proper references. Your AI answer should include the source of the information it used, so double-check where it came from and only rely on trusted and recent sources.
• Don’t give AI personal information—Anything you put into AI can be seen by anyone, opening you up to the potential for identity theft. Never share your personal or financial information when using an AI tool.

AI can speed up and personalize financial planning by analyzing your spending, spotting trends, and modeling different scenarios. It also simplifies complex data and delivers quick, easy-to-understand insight to help you make more confident decisions.

AI can be a great starting point for beginners because it can break down complex financial topics and offer suggestions. While it doesn’t replace personalized advice, it can give you clear, easy-to-understand guidance so you can make more informed decisions.

The risks of using AI for investing are that responses may misinterpret data, react too quickly to market changes, or give recommendations that don’t fit your personal goals. That’s why it’s important to use AI as a tool and pair it with your own judgment or professional guidance. Another risk is the potential for identity theft if you were to include personal information, so keep your questions general and don’t include anything that could identify you.