Study: 26% of Americans Have Used ChatGPT for Credit Card Recommendations

Editor’s note: Language in this article has been updated to clarify survey results.

The number of uses Americans have found for the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT grows by the day -- and roughly a quarter of Americans have already used the tool to research and recommend a credit card, according to a survey from The Motley Fool Ascent.

In fact, 54% percent of Americans surveyed by The Motley Fool Ascent have used ChatGPT to recommend a financial product, such as a credit or debit card, bank account, broker, mortgage lender, insurance provider, or personal loan.

That percentage is astounding given that ChatGPT was made available to the public in November 2022. While ChatGPT has experienced unprecedented growth, with 1.8 billion total visits in April 2023, the month when the Motley Fool Ascent distributed its survey via Pollfish, it’s worth noting that other surveys have found that anywhere from 14% to 59% of Americans have used ChatGPT.

While a significant percentage of respondents to The Motley Fool Ascent’s survey reported having used ChatGPT for some type of financial product advice, skepticism about using ChatGPT to help find the best financial products exists, however.

Americans aren’t entirely satisfied with the recommendations ChatGPT has made. Baby boomers in particular say they are unlikely to use ChatGPT for financial product recommendations in the future.

Accuracy of the information provided by ChatGPT and understanding the logic behind its recommendations are the most important factors Americans consider when thinking about using ChatGPT for financial product picks, suggesting that they aren’t entirely trustworthy of the AI just yet.

Key findings

• 54% of Americans surveyed by The Motley Fool Ascent have used ChatGPT to recommend a non-investment financial product.
• Millennials and Generation Z have embraced ChatGPT but baby boomers are skeptical.
• Two-thirds of baby boomers surveyed would not consider using it to recommend a financial product and 43% would not use it to help in financial decision making.
• Around 60% of Gen Zers and millennials surveyed have used ChatGPT for recommendations and a similar percentage would use it in the future.
• The accuracy of ChatGPT’s financial product recommendations and the ability to understand ChatGPT’s logic are the most important factors Americans consider when deciding whether to use ChatGPT to recommend financial products.

54% of Americans have used ChatGPT for personal finance recommendations

Fifty-four percent of Americans surveyed by The Motley Fool Ascent have used ChatGPT to get a recommendation on at least one of the following products: credit cards, debit cards, checking accounts, savings accounts, brokers, mortgage lenders, insurance, and personal loans.

Americans surveyed are slightly more likely to have used ChatGPT to find the best credit cards compared to other financial products.

In addition to credit cards, over 20% of Americans have used ChatGPT for recommendations on debit cards, checking accounts, and savings accounts.

Roughly 15% have used ChatGPT to find a broker, mortgage lender, or insurance. Only 11% have used ChatGPT for a personal loan recommendation.

Note that The Motley Fool Ascent did not ask the nature of user queries or whether users followed recommendations from ChatGPT. As a result, there is likely variance in how respondents used ChatGPT to recommend a financial product, including the specificity, quality, and depth of their query, and the action they took as a result of that recommendation.

Millennials, Gen Zers, and high-income Americans are most likely to have used ChatGPT to recommend a financial product

Not all Americans have embraced ChatGPT equally -- roughly 60% of millennials and Gen Zers surveyed have used the AI tool to recommend financial products compared to just a third of baby boomers.

Generation X has shown interest in using ChatGPT for financial product recommendations -- 51% of that generation say they have used the chatbot for help finding a credit card or other product.

Income is a more divisive factor than age when looking at which Americans have used ChatGPT for financial product recommendations.

Eighty-one percent of high-income Americans surveyed have used ChatGPT for a financial product recommendation, compared to 48% of middle-income Americans and 34% of low-income Americans.

One factor that could contribute to this disparity is that wealthier Americans tend to have more credit cards and open new credit card accounts more frequently than less wealthy Americans. As a result, wealthy Americans may be searching for recommendations more frequently than less wealthy Americans.

Over half of millennials, Gen Zers would use ChatGPT for financial product recommendations

Fifty percent of Americans surveyed would consider using ChatGPT for financial product recommendations in the future -- 4% less than the number that have already used ChatGPT to find a product.

That fewer Americans surveyed are interested in using ChatGPT in the future than those that have already used it may be a reflection of two factors:

• 52% of Americans want a human element as part of receiving financial product recommendations.
• Americans are only somewhat satisfied with the financial product recommendations that ChatGPT provided.

These factors are discussed in more detail further into the study.

The drop-off from Americans that have already used ChatGPT to the percentage that would use it in the future stems from millennials and Gen Zers.

Fifty-six percent of millennials surveyed say they would consider using it in the future to find a financial product compared to 60% who have already used it. And 55% of Gen Zers are interested in using ChatGPT in the future compared to 59% that have used it in the past.

Attitudes toward using ChatGPT in the future for financial product picks varied less among income brackets.

Fifty-six percent of high-income Americans surveyed would use the AI chatbot for financial product recommendations in the future, as would 51% of middle-income Americans and 48% of low-income Americans.

Once again, there's a gap in the percentage that have already used ChatGPT for a recommendation and the percentage that would do so in the future.

High-income Americans, 81% of whom have already used ChatGPT for help finding a financial product, are less keen on using it again in the future.

On the other hand, lower-income Americans surveyed by The Motley Fool Ascent, of whom just 34% have previously used ChatGPT to recommend a financial product, are still interested in exploring using the chatbot in the future.

Americans are more interested in using ChatGPT for credit card recommendations than any other product. Insurance would be the second most sought after ChatGPT recommendation, followed by savings accounts.

28% of Americans would use ChatGPT in the home-buying process

Distinct from using ChatGPT to find a specific product, like a credit card or savings account, Americans are more interested in using ChatGPT to help in scenarios that involve financial decision-making, like budgeting, buying a home, or comparing credit cards.

Twenty-eight percent of Americans surveyed would use ChatGPT to assist in the home-buying process -- a multistep and sometimes complicated endeavor.

Forty-one percent of Americans surveyed would use ChatGPT for help budgeting, despite ChatGPT’s known troubles with numbers and calculations.

Thirty-six percent of Americans surveyed would use ChatGPT to help strategize a way to pay off debt and the same percentage would employ the chatbot to compare credit cards.

Baby boomers and low-income Americans are most skeptical of using ChatGPT for financial decision-making

In-line with data on who has already used ChatGPT to find financial products, baby boomers and low-income Americans are least likely to employ ChatGPT to help navigate financial decisions.

Overall, 76% of Americans surveyed would employ ChatGPT to help figure out more complex financial decisions.

But, 43% percent of baby boomers say they would not use ChatGPT to help make financial decisions like buying a home or finding insurance. That's compared to 75% of Gen X that would use ChatGPT in those and similar situations, 81% of millennials, and 77% of Gen Z.

High-income Americans are most likely to lean on ChatGPT to help them figure out financial decisions like picking a bank or buying a home. Ninety-two percent surveyed say they would employ the AI chatbot in situations like those.

Three-quarters of middle-income Americans surveyed would do the same, as would 62% of low-income Americans.

52% of Americans prefer human element alongside ChatGPT for financial product recommendations

Another sign that Americans aren't ready to give ChatGPT full rein over their financial affairs, 52% of those surveyed want some human element to help them navigate financial product recommendations.

Once again, baby boomers have the least confidence in ChatGPT managing their financial decision-making. Only 32% of baby boomers are comfortable relying only on ChatGPT to pick financial products. That's compared to 46% of Gen X, 53% of millennials, and 48% of Gen Zers.

As with previous attitudes, high-income Americans surveyed by The Motley Fool Ascent have more faith in ChatGPT's ability to pick financial tools for them.

Sixty-five percent of high-income Americans surveyed are OK with letting ChatGPT alone select financial products. Less wealthy Americans are less excited about that prospect. Forty-three percent of middle-income Americans and 35% of low-income Americans are willing to rely solely on ChatGPT to pick their financial products.

Americans are somewhat satisfied with ChatGPT's financial product recommendations

Among Americans surveyed that have used ChatGPT in their search for a financial product, most are somewhat satisfied with the results.

On a scale of one to five, with one being not satisfied and five being very satisfied, the average score given by Americans that had used ChatGPT to find a financial product is 3.7.

Baby boomers and notably Gen Zers were least satisfied with ChatGPT's recommendations, providing an average score of 3.6.

Gen X were most satisfied, with an average score of 3.9. Millennials gave the AI an average score of 3.8.

Accuracy and understanding are key to trusting ChatGPT's financial product recommendations

The most important factors for Americans deciding whether to use ChatGPT to find financial products are the performance and accuracy of ChatGPT's recommendations, the ability to understand logic behind recommendations, and the ability to verify information the recommendation is based on.

Those three factors are central to trusting ChatGPT and the recommendations it makes.

Factors that don't deal with trust, like cost and how quickly recommendations can be generated, are the least important factors for when considering whether to use ChatGPT to find financial products.

ChatGPT's promise and pitfalls

ChatGPT is a powerful tool, and one that has the potential to help Americans pick financial products and navigate financial decisions.

It can analyze and distill large amounts of information and users can converse with ChatGPT to refine its recommendations to better fit their needs.

For example, users can ask ChatGPT to list the five best cash back credit cards, then focus that list on cards with no annual fees, and give priority to cash back for groceries or gas. In each iteration, ChatGPT can return results within seconds.

But there are pitfalls that users should be aware of when using ChatGPT to look for a financial product.

Among the largest is that ChatGPT is largely trained on information available only up to September 2021. That means it may not have accurate, up-to-date information on credit card rewards, mortgage rates, and so on.

Second, ChatGPT and other large language model AI chatbots have been known to "hallucinate" -- that is, provide responses that sound confident but are factually incorrect or made up.

Users should be aware of these limitations and always verify information supplied by ChatGPT and other large language models before making decisions.

Methodology

The Motley Fool Ascent distributed a survey via Pollfish on April 19, 2023 to 2,000 American adults. Respondents were 41% male and 59% female.