The money questions children ask AI chatbots

Lots of people are worried about the growing number of adults turning to AI for financial advice. Well, what if I told you that 40 per cent of children were too?

This is the standout stat from a study of 2,000 British youngsters aged 6-18 carried out by GoHenry, the children’s banking and financial education app.

I was somewhat comforted to see that parents still remained the number one trusted source of money advice, with AI coming in at number two. In most cases, researchers said that children were asking questions of AI-powered chatbots or smart devices that belonged to their parents, which suggests some degree of oversight. But what have they been asking about money — and more importantly, what “advice” has AI been giving them in response?

Thankfully, “how to get rich quick” did not make the top 10 list of questions. How to spend money wisely was at the top. Researching and comparing prices of items they wanted to buy was the top use of AI, closely followed by how to earn money.

Parents are the most likely “employer”, as GoHenry somewhat controversially enables children to earn pocket money by proposing and completing different chores. This half-term holiday, parents may well be pestered to allocate some extra jobs (clearing out the garage or planting bulbs in the garden have proved popular). One of my followers on Instagram set her son the task of sorting out her Tupperware cupboard and matching the pots and lids. Genius.

But older children are more likely to ask Claude or ChatGPT about potential side hustles. A separate study last year found that 40 per cent of GoHenry customers already had one, and one in eight of them had managed to earn more than £1,000.

Louise Hill, GoHenry’s chief executive, said that while there was lots of interest in earning money by creating content on YouTube, youngsters were more likely to earn money by selling stuff on parents’ Vinted, eBay or Depop accounts (and not just their own stuff — a worry if you have not seen your favourite jacket for a while).

Card payment data shows that children are buying crafting materials online, making things and selling them on sites such as Etsy — a bit of a step up from a stall at the school fete. One of the most coveted savings goals this year has been a 3D printer, and Hill says customers are using them to make fidget spinners or figurines which they sell to friends and classmates.

Trading football cards is another area where AI gives kids the edge. Viren, a 10-year-old customer, has used ChatGPT with his dad to sense-check prices before he buys and sells.

The owner of a coveted JJ Gabriel card, worth hundreds of pounds, Viren uses AI to work out if the potential profit after costs means he should accept a bid, counter or hold on to the card. His dad says that has taught him a lot about negotiating and making sensible money decisions.

Plenty of questions on the list reflect children’s desire to gain insights into what the financial life of an adult actually looks like. Learning more about investing was also popular, with Hill saying older teenage boys were the most likely to ask.

I suspect this is on their radar because there is so much investing content on YouTube and TikTok, much of it emanating from the manosphere. We can but hope that chatbots give a more balanced view — but seeing as this financial advice is totally unregulated, it’s a big worry.

The Financial Conduct Authority has separately been harrumphing about AI-powered advice this week. Its research found that four out of five less-experienced investors aged 18-40 have turned to AI for help, yet only 40 per cent of adult consumers correctly recognise that there is no one to compensate them if they follow AI tips and lose money.

I strongly suspect the number of children who would recognise this is much lower. Even if the AI platforms adopt the FCA’s suggestion of prominent disclaimers, I doubt they would pay much attention.

In one sense, it’s great that teenagers are even aware of investing. But I was glad to see evidence in the GoHenry study that children were also aware of the dangers of AI. Ironically, plenty of children asked AI how to spot a scam or a deepfake, and a whopping 73 per cent said learning about AI in school would help them better understand the risks and benefits.

Seeing as so many adults and children are already using AI for financial advice, this must be at the heart of government plans to teach financial literacy in UK primary and secondary schools by 2028. As well as making it clear that AI is not always right, we must empower children to question the relentlessly positive and confident tone of chatbots and to develop critical thinking and research skills that do not leave them reliant on a hallucinating algorithm.

All kinds of regulated financial firms are weighing up whether to invest in AI models that could be used in a controlled way on their own platforms. It is clear to me that the customers of the future will expect this kind of relationship. As they ask how to manage their money better, the platforms and providers that can easily answer are the ones that will win their business.

Claer Barrett is the FT’s consumer editor; claer.barrett@ft.com Instagram @ClaerB