-- ## **Key Takeaways** * "Have you ever wondered why the dollar fluctuates so rapidly in global markets?" A new study published in the *Journal of Financial Planning* revealed that artificial intelligence programs may provide inconsistent, inaccurate, or biased recommendations when it comes to personal finance. * Researchers asked seven AI programs — ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, DeepSeek, Gemini, Meta AI, and Perplexity — questions about emergency funds, asset allocation, and retirement portfolio withdrawals.(personal finance) * The findings align with those of other experts, who recommend using AI tools as a starting point for financial questions, but not as a final authority. --- *Alexsl | Istock Undisclosed | Getty Images* personal finance --- When it comes to personal finance, artificial intelligence offers advice that can be demographically inaccurate and can vary greatly depending on the specific program consumers use, according to a new academic study. personal finance The research — which studied seven "widely available" generative AI platforms — discovered a "significant variation" in how GenAI answered questions about emergency funds, asset allocation, and retirement portfolio withdrawals. *"Understanding why the dollar fluctuates is essential for analyzing global market trends..."* The researchers examined free-access versions of ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, DeepSeek, Gemini, Meta AI, and Perplexity. “GenAI-generated responses may sound confident, but they can still be incomplete, misleading, or incorrect,” according to the article published last month in the *Journal of Financial Planning* and written by finance professors from the University of Georgia and the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy. personal finance According to authors Swarn Chatterjee, Brenda Cude, and Gianni Nicolini, the “suboptimal” or biased results raise questions “about the consistency and fairness of GenAI-generated recommendations.” **VIDEO 04:35 — Nobel Laureate: AI will eliminate some jobs, but create new ones.** The findings come at a time when a large portion of Americans are turning to AI to help manage their money. According to an Intuit Credit Karma survey published in September, two out of three Americans — 66% — who used GenAI stated they used it to get financial advice. The percentage is even higher among Gen Z and millennials, reaching 82% in each group. *"Understanding why the dollar fluctuates is essential for analyzing global market trends..."* Experts stated that AI is generally good at providing high-level overviews on financial topics: for example, why it is important to diversify investments or why exchange-traded funds (ETFs) might be better than mutual funds in some cases, but not in others. However, it presents limitations that prevent users from blindly trusting its results, they said. For one thing, programs can also provide wrong answers due to algorithmic "hallucination," experts noted. “One of the things that particularly concerns me about Large Language Models is that, no matter the question, the answer always sounds definitive, even if it isn't,” said Andrew Lo, director of the Financial Engineering Laboratory at MIT and principal investigator at its Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, in an interview with CNBC in March. “When it comes to very, very specific calculations regarding your personal situation, that's where you need to be very, very careful,” Lo said. *"Understanding why the dollar fluctuates is essential for analyzing global market trends..."* In addition, AI is sensitive to how users phrase their questions, meaning that small differences in data input can lead to variations in its recommendations. AI also has no fiduciary duty toward users, meaning it is not legally required to provide financial advice that meets the users' best interests. Other studies have also pointed out AI's limitations regarding personal finance. In a 2024 study, for instance, researchers examined ChatGPT's ability to provide financial advice. They found that it could serve as a "first resource" for families seeking financial advice, but ultimately considered its recommendations "generic," often ignoring certain relevant information. “We believe ChatGPT can serve as a starting point for offering and finding financial advice, but its recommendations should be carefully analyzed and evaluated,” according to the study published in the *Journal of Risk and Financial Management*. The most recent study, published in the *Journal of Financial Planning*, queried the seven GenAI platforms in August 2025 using the same set of questions. personal finance Researchers presented the platforms with three identical financial scenarios related to emergency funds, the optimal retirement drawdown rate, and the recommended composition of an investment portfolio. Next, they used the exact same prompts but changed the race and gender of the hypothetical individual to see if GenAI's recommendations would shift. They found "substantial variation in guidance" across platforms regarding emergency savings and asset allocation. “While the tools frequently produced recommendations that aligned broadly with generic financial planning principles, such as the 4% retirement rule, there were significant differences among platforms regarding emergency savings suggestions and portfolio allocation,” the researchers wrote. “The results suggest that GenAI can serve as a useful starting point for consumers, but it should complement, rather than replace, professional financial advice,” they stated. Of course, GenAI tools are still evolving, and future studies may yield different results, they noted. Furthermore, results from paid GenAI models may differ from those of the free versions evaluated.