AI Investing Statistics (2026)
Updated July 2026
As of 2026, roughly 62% of retail investors use AI tools to help with investing decisions and 54% have used a ChatGPT-style chatbot for research, yet only 7% say AI drove their last major decision. Robo-advisors now manage over $1 trillion globally.
Share of surveyed US retail investors. Source: Investing.com, 2026.
AI adoption among investors
A 2026 survey of 938 US retail investors found that 62% now use AI tools to help inform their investing decisions, split between 23.6% who use them regularly, 27.4% occasionally, and 11.5% who have tried them once or twice.
AI chatbots are the most-used tools: 54% of respondents say they have used ChatGPT-style assistants for investing research. A separate eToro survey found about 1 in 10 retail investors already use ChatGPT-style AI to pick and manage investments.
Among AI users, 65% say it has improved their market performance. Of the investors not yet using AI, 21% say they are considering it while 16.6% do not plan to use it for investing at all.
The trust gap
Investors use AI to explore, not to decide. In a broad HSBC survey, only 7% of US investors cited AI as the most influential factor in their last investment decision, versus 59% who pointed to a financial professional or institution.
Skepticism is healthy and common: 38.9% of investors worry about incorrect or misleading AI recommendations, and 24.2% worry about market herding if many people act on the same AI signals. A majority say they still verify AI-generated insights with other sources before acting.
Robo-advisors and AI wealth management
Robo-advisors are the most established form of automated investing. Globally they managed over $1 trillion in assets by 2025, with forecasts pointing toward roughly $7 trillion by 2029. US robo-advisors alone were expected to manage about $520 billion by 2025, up from $350 billion in 2023, serving over 6 million users.
The largest platforms are dominated by incumbents: Vanguard Digital Advisor leads with more than $311 billion in AUM, followed by Empower at about $200 billion and Schwab Intelligent Portfolios near $81 billion.
AI across the finance industry
Beyond retail, AI is now embedded across financial services. The AI-in-finance market was valued at roughly $21 billion in 2026 and is growing at a high-teens to low-20s percent annual rate, and about 81% of surveyed financial-services firms report adopting AI in some form.
In markets specifically, algorithmic and AI-assisted systems already drive an estimated 70 to 80% of US equity trading volume, and fraud detection is the single most common institutional use case, cited by around 72% of institutions.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of investors use AI?
About 62% of US retail investors used AI tools to help with investing decisions in 2026, and 54% had used a ChatGPT-style chatbot for research, according to an Investing.com survey.
Do people trust AI to make investing decisions?
Mostly to explore, not to decide. Only about 7% of investors say AI was the most influential factor in their last major decision, and most verify AI output against other sources before acting.
How big is the robo-advisor market?
Robo-advisors managed over $1 trillion globally by 2025, with projections toward roughly $7 trillion by 2029. US robo-advisors alone managed an estimated $520 billion serving 6 million-plus users.
Is AI good at investing?
AI is strongest as a research and analysis assistant, not an oracle. It can summarize, compare, and stress-test ideas, but it cannot reliably predict prices and does not know your specific holdings unless you connect them.
Sources
Figures are compiled from the primary sources above and reflect the most recent data available at the time of writing. This page is informational and not investment advice.
Walnut lets you connect your brokerage and analyze your real holdings against benchmarks with AI, read-only by default.
Try Walnut