When social media influencer Natasha Etschmann learned almost half of Australian investors were turning to artificial intelligence tools for financial advice, she wasn't surprised.
The FORBES 30under30 recipient started giving financial advice on social media because people didn't know a lot about money.
"There's a real big lack of information in Australia. What do I do? How do I do it? What do I invest in? Where do I invest? How do you invest? Is it safe? What's a scam?" the influencer with almost 180,000 Instagram followers told AAP.
A survey showing 48 per cent of people use AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Co-Pilot to make investment decisions made sense, Ms Etschmann said.
The unaffordability of financial advice was a reason why people turned to AI, she said.
"Our financial advice system is really broken," Ms Etschmann said.
"There's a big gap in our system where there is literally nowhere for some people to go, and it's just going to get more and more expensive as advisors leave the industry."
Financial Advice Association Australia chair David Sharpe said he was not surprised people were using AI for advice as Australians were becoming accustomed to using technology such as Google to make decisions.
But he cautioned against taking advice from chatbots.
"I saw a great meme online not long ago, which was ChatGPT is great for things I don't know about, but the things I do know about, it's only about half right," Mr Sharpe told AAP.
"AI and autopilot could fly me from Perth to Sydney. I'm not sure I'll still get on that plane if there wasn't a trained pilot at the front as well."
He recommended people speak to a qualified financial advisor when they want to invest.
"When it comes to what a financial planner does, it brings it back to the human element, which is, what are you actually trying to achieve?'' Mr Sharpe said.
"How do you control emotions?"
Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand surveyed 1000 Australian retail investors with more than $10,000 invested in the stock market and other areas.
The results showed AI was changing the landscape for mum-and-dad investors, CEO Ainslie van Onselen said.
"More than two-thirds (81 per cent) are at least somewhat satisfied with the information AI provided,'' he said.
"But trust is still a major issue - 43 per cent said they don't use AI as they lacked confidence in the information produced and 46 per cent prefer to stay with tried and tested sources of information."
Chartered Accountants chief economist Richard Holden said investors were turning to AI because of a strong domestic economy.
"This has been largely driven by the belief that the Australian economy will improve and that Australia will navigate the current global political landscape successfully," Professor Holden said.
"The increasing use of AI tools in investment decision-making highlights the importance of having high-quality and reliable financial data for training these models, which support investors in making informed decisions."