More Canadians aged 18 to 29 now use AI than a licensed advisor for financial advice
Recent Canadian graduates are making their own money decisions and increasingly treating artificial intelligence as a second opinion.
Among recent graduates who take part in financial decision-making, 61 percent said they make those decisions on their own, without another person, according to a Securian Canada survey.
That independence extends to how the group researches insurance.
Securian Canada found 38 percent of recent graduates are open to using AI for insurance-related research, against 26 percent of Canadians overall.
Within that 38 percent, the survey showed, 17 percent have already used AI for such research and 21 percent would consider it.
Among Canadians generally, 12 percent have used AI this way and 14 percent would consider doing so.
Willingness to research with AI does not yet translate into willingness to act on it.
Just 23 percent of recent graduates trust AI for insurance recommendations.
That figure climbs to 44 percent among recent graduates who have used AI before, while 28 percent of Canadians who have previously used the technology trust it for insurance recommendations.
A gender split runs through the findings.
Men, at 14 percent, are close to twice as likely as women, at 8 percent, to trust AI for recommendations on long-term financial planning, Securian Canada said.
The firm framed the results as a caution as much as an opportunity.
AI can help streamline research, it said, but the recommendations it produces "cannot fully account for an individual's unique financial circumstances, priorities or long-term goals."
Securian Canada added that the data points insurers and distributors toward building simpler, more accessible and more personalized digital experiences.
The survey also noted that 66 percent of recent graduates are single and have never previously been married, which the firm tied to financial decision-making often falling to one person.
