Survey: More People Trust Robots To Manage Money Than Financial Advisors

When it comes to money management, most people are putting their faith in robots rather than flesh-and-blood financial experts, according to a global study conducted by Oracle Corporation ORCL.

What Happened: The study polled 9,001 respondents between Nov. 10 and Dec. 8 in 14 countries: the U.S., U.K., Germany, Netherlands, France, China, India, Australia, Brazil, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

Among the notable results: 67% of consumers and business leaders trust a robot more than a human to manage finances; 73% of business leaders trust a robot more than themselves to manage finances; and 77% have more faith in robots over their own finance teams.

Furthermore, 89% of business leaders believe robots could strengthen the workforce when it comes to detecting fraud (34%), creating invoices (25%) and conducting cost/benefit analysis (23%). Looking ahead five years, 56% of business leaders predict robots will replace corporate finance professionals, while 85% of business leaders are eager to have robots help them with finance tasks including finance approvals (43%), budgeting and forecasting (39%), reporting (38%) and compliance and risk management (38%).

Outside of the C-suite, 53% of consumers admit they put more trust in a robot to manage their finances than themselves, while 63% prefer dealing with robots over personal financial advisors. And two-thirds of consumers say robots can help them detect fraud (33%), reduce spending (22%) and make stock market investments (15%).

What's Happening Next: Looking ahead five years, 42% of consumers predict robots will replace personal financial advisors, while 76% of consumers await the day when robots could help manage their finances by freeing up time (33%), reducing unnecessary spending (31%) and increasing on-time payments (25%).

"Financial processes in our personal and professional worlds have become increasingly digital for many years and the events of 2020 have accelerated that trend," said Juergen Lindner, senior vice president of global marketing at Oracle.