Will ChatGPT put financial advisors out of business? That's probably getting ahead of ourselves, but here's something worth paying attention to: two-thirds of Americans are already using generative AI for financial advice, according to a survey from Intuit Credit Karma released in September.

And they're not just dabbling. Nearly the same proportion say they use AI "often" for financial guidance. Perhaps most telling, 75% of respondents say AI allows them to ask questions they'd be too embarrassed to ask a real financial advisor. Turns out there's something liberating about admitting to a chatbot that you don't know the difference between a Roth IRA and a traditional one.

"GenAI is a powerful tool for learning, planning, and managing your money in more personalized ways," said Courtney Alev, consumer financial advocate at Intuit Credit Karma. "While these tools put smart insights at your fingertips, it's also important to understand your options and how they fit into your bigger financial picture."

What People Are Actually Asking

So what are people curious about? The questions span the full spectrum of personal finance, according to Intuit Credit Karma's findings:

• Financial education and basic personal finance concepts (35%)
• Financial goal setting and action plans (35%)
• Budgeting and expense management (34%)
• Optimizing savings (33%)
• Investing in the stock market (32%)

The topics are pretty evenly distributed, which suggests people are treating AI as a general-purpose financial advisor rather than a specialized tool for one specific task.

Can You Actually Trust AI With Your Money?

This is the question that matters. Large language models like ChatGPT can provide reasonably accurate personal finance advice, according to economist and MIT finance professor Andrew Lo.

"The preliminary analysis is that with a relatively light module — not a lot of data and not a lot of analytics — we're actually able to generate passing domain-specific knowledge among large language models," Lo said last year in a post on the school's website.

ChatGPT "doesn't quite pass, but it's close," without a module, Lo explained. "It's actually remarkably close."

Users themselves seem fairly confident in what they're getting. Among those who've used generative AI for financial advice, four in five said their finances improved and 81% felt more confident managing their money, according to the Intuit Credit Karma survey.

Looking at the reliability metrics, 79% of AI users found the information accurate and 71% considered it helpful. Those are solid numbers, but here's the catch: 52% of respondents admitted they made a poor financial decision based on AI's advice at some point.

That's not exactly a ringing endorsement, which may explain why people are treating AI advice with appropriate skepticism. A full 80% of people who acted on AI recommendations said they researched and validated what the AI told them before making any moves. Smart approach, honestly. Think of it as trust, but verify.

The bottom line? AI is clearly becoming a mainstream tool for financial guidance, but it's probably best used as a starting point rather than the final word on your money decisions.