Wealthy Clients Favor Human Advisors Over AI, HSBC Finds

A survey conducted for HSBC of about 10,000 affluent and high-net-worth individuals found 62% still rely on human advisors as their main source of investment ideas. Twelve percent of respondents said artificial intelligence was the most influential factor in their investment decisions.

Ipsos carried out the survey on behalf of HSBC across multiple markets. The bank reported that clients increasingly use AI to explore options and support analysis, but they place higher value on human judgment, context and accountability when making final investment choices.

Barry O’Byrne, CEO of international wealth and premier banking at HSBC, noted that clients use AI for exploration but rely on trusted advisors for final decisions.

The survey identified generational differences. Respondents up to about age 45 — broadly Gen Z and millennials in the report — were more likely to combine AI with human advisors across many financial tasks. Older cohorts more frequently cited human advisors as their principal source for investment ideas.

Financial firms are responding in varied ways to the rise of AI. HSBC and other banks have attributed some recent job reductions to technology changes, while other institutions are expanding client-facing teams. McKinsey suggests AI could automate services for clients with $1 million or less in liquid assets, and some banks are hiring more wealth advisers to meet demand from affluent clients.

HSBC said it is rolling out advisor-enabled AI tools in wealth management, including a platform called Wealth Intelligence. The platform draws on more than 10,000 data sources, combining HSBC research and external news feeds to help relationship managers prepare for client conversations.

Survey respondents identified the most valued advisor contributions as applying judgment and validation, spotting errors in AI-generated output, and providing personalized interpretation of complex information. Investors mainly use AI for modelling, analysis and research, strategy support and as a second opinion rather than as the sole basis for decisions.

A growing set of AI products now offers finance-specific features. Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Alphabet’s Gemini can model portfolios, suggest tax approaches and help explore philanthropic options. Debasish Patnaik, a McKinsey partner, expects new specialist roles to emerge in wealth management — including behavioral data scientists, personalization architects and human-in-the-loop oversight professionals to monitor and refine AI-generated advice.