Would You Let AI Manage Your Portfolio? 41% of Investors Are Open to It — or Already Trying It

The boom in artificial intelligence has been accompanied with widespread debate of its ethics, as well as fears of job loss. But the innovation appears to be winning over the confidence of at least one group: retail investors.

The results of a survey from investment platform eToro conducted online in June of 1,000 U.S. retail traders shows that some investors are ready to jump headfirst into the world of AI portfolio management.

Around two in five respondents to the survey said they are open to using or are already using AI to pick or change investments in their portfolio. For younger people, this figure skews much higher.

What the data says

The survey found that 41% of respondents are open to or already using AI to pick or change investments in their portfolios. That number jumps to 71% when looking at only respondents between 18 and 44 years of age.

According to the findings, 31% of 18-to-34-year-old investors say they are already using services like ChatGPT to inform investing decisions, and 38% of 35-to-44-year-old respondents say the same. Of the investors open to using AI or already using it, nearly 60% say they would allow AI to alter and execute trades for them.

The top reasons respondents gave for using AI to pick stocks is that they can save a lot of research time by defaulting to AI, and that they believe the technology is the future of investing. In fact, a third of respondents even said that they believe AI technology will pick better investments than a traditional fund manager.

Investors turning to AI stocks

Retail investors’ collective enthusiasm for AI doesn’t stop at the potentials for portfolio management. They’re also excited about AI stocks as an investment option.

The survey found 11% of respondents say they plan to increase their holdings of AI stocks at some point this year. This comes after what has been an impressive first half of the year for AI stocks. Nvidia’s stock, for example, is up nearly 200% year-to-date, and C3.ai’s has soared around 275% in 2023.

Stocks entered a bull market last month as share prices of companies related to this latest technology skyrocketed. Still, many experts claim that the AI market is not a bubble, but rather a sustainable new tech market.

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