When Courtlynn Dickey was a freshman at American University, he opened his first credit card. He racked up more debt than he meant to and headed to a bank for help, but said the banker used terms he didn’t know.
“When I talked to my banker, my banker’s talking to me about FICO. I’m like, wait, I thought we were talking about payment!” Dickey recalled.
As soon as he left, he asked ChatGPT to explain the acronym.
“I said, ‘What is FICO, why is it important and why do I need to care?’” he told News4, referring to a type of credit score used by lenders.
The AI tool didn’t just break down financial terms on the fly. Soon, it became his go-to financial assistant with help on budgeting, saving and even planning his work schedule. Eager to pay down that credit card, Dickey said he uses ChatGPT to determine how many hours he has to work weekly to meet his goal.
“It’s been a learning tool,” Dickey said, later adding: “The more information I feed it, the more accurate it gets.”
But is asking AI financial questions a good idea? News4 took that question to certified financial planner Rianka Dorsainvil, the owner of YGC Wealth.
“This is a perfect example on how AI is making it accessible for college students and early grads to make informed financial decisions,” Dorsainvil said about how Dickey turned to ChatGPT.
She said she loves how AI makes general financial guidance and tools easy for everyone – but that it shouldn’t be used for more complicated financial matters, such as estate planning, setting up businesses or combining finances with a spouse.
“That’s part of our job as a certified financial planner, is asking those second- and third-level questions to make sure that we’re giving personalized financial guidance for you, specifically to your financial situation,” Dorsainvil said.
What if you can’t afford a certified financial planner and need to just turn to AI and hope for the best?
“Using AI is OK. However, sometimes it hallucinates, meaning it will give incorrect information or just very wrong numbers. And, so, it doesn’t matter how you are receiving this information. If it’s from AI, you definitely want to double-check or have a professional just take a look at it,” Dorsainvil said.
Certified financial planners are legally and ethically required to put a client’s interests first, but a bot doesn’t have that same responsibility, she added.
“What do they have to lose if you take their guidance and advice? Me, I can lose my CFP if I’m giving you wrong, non-fiduciary advice,” Dorsainvil said.
What AI companies say about giving financial advice
News4 noticed that when we asked AI platforms questions like “What stocks should we invest in?” some – including Gemini and Grok – gave disclaimers that they weren’t financial advisers and were not giving personalized advice. Others gave general recommendations.
We reached out to the platforms for comment. Microsoft’s CoPilot acknowledged that sometimes AI can make mistakes and said people should always check their sources and reach out to professionals when they need more guidance.
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