Can ChatGPT Assist Investors Beyond the Stock Market? Insights from a CFP

A recent survey of over 2,000 Americans by The Motley Fool has found that approximately 50% of Gen Zers and a little over half of millennials have used ChatGPT, OpenAI’s viral AI chatbot, for investing advice. However, the tool is not intended to give advice, and OpenAI prompts ChatGPT users with a warning that it sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers. Douglas Boneparth, a certified financial planner and the president and founder of Bone Fide Wealth, tried building a hypothetical diversified portfolio with ChatGPT and said the results weren’t great. Although impressed by how close the AI chatbot came to achieving what he wanted, Boneparth warned that the AI technology has limitations, such as being limited to using only pre-2021 data and struggling to understand the specific preferences of an individual. As such, while AI chatbots might not be the best tools for building a portfolio, they can be useful to investors when looking up definitions of financial terms or gathering data when researching a company. Despite their capabilities, human financial advisors are better suited to help with financial decisions that involve emotions and behaviours.