Over half (55%) of adults receiving financial advice will accept AI playing a role in the process, but only if a human makes the final decision, deVere Group has found.

The independent financial advisory organisation’s July 2026 survey revealed that a further 57% are open to AI helping with research and preparation, provided it never replaces the adviser at the point a decision actually gets made.

deVere also found that there is a divide by age in how people approach AI use in their financial advice process.

Clients around 54 embrace AI readily as part of their financial planning, but by 65, scepticism becomes the default, with many clients being actively distrustful of any decision the technology has been involved in.

Regional director at deVere Group, James Green, said people are “not confused” by what they want from AI.

He added: "They want it doing the work nobody enjoys, not making the calls that decide their retirement.

"Hand a decision like that to a machine without a person standing behind it, and you’ve not modernised the relationship. You’ve probably ended it."

Strategy consultant at deVere Group, added that firms that respect the boundary clients are drawing and AI handling groundwork will gain more from the shift towards the technology’s implementation.

She concluded: "Clients are not rejecting AI, they’re drawing a line around it. Firms offering an old-fashioned adviser with no modern tools, or a slick app with nobody actually behind it, are the ones that are going to lose out."

"Get this wrong and it will not be a slow decline. Clients don’t complain and drift away quietly when a firm crosses this line. They leave fast, and they leave for a competitor still offering a person they can actually trust."

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