AI got her retirement wrong for a decade — why Canadians shouldn't trust chatbots with their financial future

Yingling’s experience, first reported by The New York Times (1), captures how comfortable people are getting with turning to generative AI chatbots for advice on how to manage their financial lives. However, this highly ubiquitous yet convenient technology shouldn’t replace human-led, experience-driven financial insight, especially when planning for a liveable nest egg in retirement.

More Canadians are trying AI for financial tasks

As AI becomes more integrated into the everyday lives of Canadians, many of them are turning to AI for help with their finances.

A survey released by H&R Block in April 2026 found 33% of Canadians were using AI for budget management and financial planning, with younger age groups leading the charge: 42% of respondents aged 18 to 34 were turning to AI, followed by 41% aged 35 to 54 and just 21% aged 55+ (2).

While these figures aren’t specific to retirement planning, they do show Canadians are increasingly interested in using this technology to learn about money and explore financial options. However, many remain cautious: in the same H&R Block survey, 56% of respondents said they still wouldn’t be comfortable using AI to help with their finances, while 82% of Canadians didn’t like the idea of putting their financial personal information into an open AI tool for managing their finances.

These results show that while AI tools are appealing because they’re free, available 24/7 and can offer quick explanations of financial concepts without booking an appointment, Canadians still have reservations about security.

Plus, convenience doesn’t guarantee accuracy.

As a research paper from the C.D. Howe Institute put it, publicly available tools like ChatGPT have “the potential to be a true productivity booster,” but they can also be subject to “hallucinations” — where they make up recommendations in lieu of having the answers (3). Having a financial advisor there to verify details, the report suggests, is always a good idea.

The lesson here is that investing with AI on your own, especially if your financial literacy is limited, could lead to things going seriously wrong.

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Why AI answers can miss the mark

Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT generate responses by predicting patterns in text. They don’t automatically pull live market data and interpret Canadian tax rules (such as RRSP contribution limits or TFSA withdrawal implications).

This can be a serious problem for retirement, as Canadians face a multitude of decisions when planning their golden years. They need to know when to withdraw RRSPs, how to balance TFSA versus taxable investing, or when to begin Canada Pension Plan (CPP) or Old Age Security (OAS) benefits. This makes it difficult to come up with an individualized plan since the answers to these questions are highly contextual, depending on an individual’s income, future cash needs, tax bracket changes and longevity assumptions.

For example, researchers at Investing in the Web asked ChatGPT Search a total of 100 personal finance questions and found more than a third (35%) were partially incorrect or flat-out wrong (4). That’s a sobering statistic when the topic is retirement — since small errors can compound over decades.

AI tools don’t have a built-in ability to “know a client,” which is a core principle in providing regulated financial advice across Canada. And there will always be a subset of investors who believe that the only way to “know a client” is to be the client themselves. They are, of course, DIY investors who want to take charge of their own retirement portfolios.

For these self-directed investors, the power of AI is less important than the ability to build their portfolios without the burden of paying commissions on trades and account fees. For them, it’s more important to find an investor-friendly brokerage like Questrade, which gives you commission-free trades on all ETFs and stocks listed in both Canada and the U.S.

Questrade has long been one of Canada’s leading discount brokerages, offering various accounts to buy and sell ETFs, stocks, options and more. However, one of the reasons it is so popular with DIY investors is the flexibility it gives you over how much you control your portfolio, along with minimal fees, so you can keep your cash where it belongs — in your investments.

What’s more, when you open a self-directed investing account today, you can get $50 cash back with a minimum deposit as little as $250.

Where AI can still be useful

Despite risks, financial experts say AI can play a helpful supporting role when used carefully.

It excels at explaining financial basics in plain language — for example, what an RRSP is, how asset allocation works or why diversification matters. That aligns with Canadians’ behaviour: many use AI to learn more about personal finance topics and build financial literacy, according to one BMO survey (5).

AI can also help users spot mismatched asset allocations, generate budgeting templates and compare basic contribution strategies. In other words, when a user is actively engaging with AI and learning from it — as AI is learning from them — they can make the most of these platforms as educational tools.