Half of them have no idea the AI answering their questions is unregulated
Among Canadians aged 18 to 29, more turned to AI chatbots than to a licensed mortgage broker or financial adviser for money and mortgage advice over the past year
A national survey conducted by Abacus Data for the Real Estate and Mortgage Institute of Canada (REMIC) found 26 percent of that group used tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, against 17 percent who used a licensed broker or adviser.
The pattern flips with age: among Canadians 60 and over, REMIC said, 3 percent used AI while 12 percent used a licensed broker.
The poll of 1,910 adults ran from May 28 to June 2, 2026, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.24 percent, 19 times out of 20, for a comparable probability sample.
The shift is generational rather than universal.
Nearly half of Canadians (46 percent) sought no financial advice from any source in the past year but the youngest cohort is adopting AI faster than any other group.
Much of the advice young Canadians reach for sits outside the regulatory perimeter, and many do not know it.
Only 9 percent of Canadians believe AI chatbot mortgage advice is regulated the same way as a licensed broker's, per the survey, while 45 percent know it is not and 46 percent are unsure.
Among 18-to-29-year-olds, half either think the advice is regulated or do not know.
REMIC's founder and CEO, Joe White, cast the numbers as a policy failure rather than a matter of consumer education.
He called it "a consumer protection gap" that Canada has yet to address, said White, who co-wrote the book FINFLUENCER.
The survey also points to decisions already made.
Nearly three in ten Canadians aged 18 to 29 (29 percent) have made a financial or mortgage decision based mainly on AI or a social media influencer, REMIC said, and more than half of them reported negative or mixed results.
REMIC, a Toronto-based mortgage and insurance education firm approved by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, trains the licensed brokers the survey contrasts with the AI channel.
Other Canadian data track the same generational tilt.
A separate poll by Money Mentors and Angus Reid found that 21 percent of Albertans used AI such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini for financial guidance, the highest rate of any province, CBC reported in June.
A University of Alberta professor of mathematical finance and risk management, Chris Frei, told CBC the tools can widen access.
“This may give people who would otherwise not have access to financial information a way for education and improving financial literacy,” Frei said.
He cautioned that neither AI nor social media tailors advice to a person's tax situation, debt, income or family obligations.
The pull is clearest among young people trying to close an information gap.
Al Zhang, a high school math teacher in Fort McMurray, Alta., began following financial influencers to grow his income after landing his first job in 2022, CBC's Cost of Living reported.
“You usually hear about investing, but no one really tells you how you should do it,” Zhang said.
The audience is large: Toronto finfluencer Joyee Yang has drawn more than 300,000 followers across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, according to CBC, and an Ontario Securities Commission survey it cited found that 91 percent of retail investors polled use social media, with 35 percent acting on a finfluencer's advice.
The unregulated space has already produced enforcement cases.
In April 2025, CBC reported, the Alberta Securities Commission ruled that Canmore finfluencer James Domenic Floreani, known online as Jayconomics, breached provincial securities law by promoting four companies' stocks to more than 50,000 YouTube subscribers without disclosing he had been paid over $100,000 to do so.
Comments on his posts showed followers acting on the recommendations, the commission found.
Floreani later told investigators he stopped posting in early 2022 after he and others lost money, according to CBC, and said his health suffered.
The renewal figures give the trend a direct line into advisers' books.
Among homeowners aged 18 to 29, 13 percent expect to rely primarily on AI or online tools at their next mortgage renewal, the survey found, against 4 percent of homeowners overall.
