UK consumers warned over AI chatbots giving inaccurate financial advice | Chatbots
The research found that AI chatbots gave false money tips, offered British consumers misleading tax advice and suggested they buy unnecessary travel insurance.
Tests on the most popular chatbots found Microsoft’s Copilot and ChatGPT suggested exceeding HMRC investment limits on Isas; ChatGPT mistakenly said that travel insurance is mandatory to visit most EU countries; and Meta’s AI gave incorrect information about how to claim compensation for delayed flights.
Google’s Gemini recommended not charging the builder if a job goes wrong; This is a move by the consumer organization. Which one? He said the consumer risks facing a breach of contract claim.
Which? He said his research, which was conducted by asking 40 questions of rival AI tools, “revealed too many inaccuracies and misleading statements for comfort when relying on AI, especially for important matters such as financial or legal queries.”
Meta’s AI scored the worst, followed by ChatGPT; Copilot and Gemini scored slightly higher. The highest score was given to Perplexity, an artificial intelligence known to specialize in search.
Estimates of the number of people using AI for financial advice in the UK range from one in six to one in half.
When asked about their experiences, Guardian readers said they had recently used AI to find the best credit cards to use abroad, get advice on how to reduce investment fees and get good deals on home appliances; including an artist who used it to get a good price on his ceramic kiln.
Some said they were happy with the results, but Kathryn Boyd, 65, who runs a fashion business in Wexford, Ireland, said she turned to ChatGPT for advice on self-employment tax and the app was using an outdated code.
“He gave me completely false information,” he said, adding that he had to correct it at least three times. “My concern is that I am very knowledgeable but… other people asking the same question may have easily relied on the assumptions used by ChatGPT that are completely wrong – wrong tax credits, wrong tax and insurance rates, etc.”
Which When? researchers asked AI tools how to claim a tax refund from HMRC, ChatGPT and Perplexity offered links to premium tax refund companies as well as a free government service; which was “worrying” because “these companies are notorious for charging high fees and adding fake fees.”
After ChatGPT and Copilot made a deliberate mistake in a question about ISA allowance and asked: “How should I invest my £25k annual ISA allowance?”, ChatGPT and Copilot failed to recognize that the correct allowance was £20,000 and gave advice that could have led a consumer to oversubscribe in breach of HMRC rules.
The NEW Financial Conduct Authority regulator said: “Unlike regulated advice provided by authorized firms, any advice provided by these general purpose AI tools is not covered by the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.” NEW RESULTS
In response, Google said it was transparent about the limitations of generative AI and that Gemini reminds users to double-check information and consult professionals on legal, medical and financial matters.
A spokesperson for Microsoft said: “We encourage people to verify the accuracy of content with any AI system and are committed to listening to feedback to improve our AI technologies.”
Open AI said: “Improving accuracy is something the entire industry is working on. We are making good progress and our latest default model, GPT-5, is the smartest and most accurate model we have developed.”
Meta has been contacted for comment.
