Nearly half of UK investors have now used AI for financial advice with spikes across all age groups and LLM usage ahead of Germany and Italy
AI is now a mainstream investment tool embedded in everyday investing behaviour, with 49% of UK investors using tools such as ChatGPT or Gemini for financial guidance – up 16 percentage points in a year.
The Investor Index 2026 is the latest annual study of investor behaviour from AML Group and The Nursery Research & Planning which calculates a composite measure of investor confidence, sense of control and how informed investors feel about their financial decisions.
This year, the findings show AI adoption among investors is following the same trajectory as investor confidence – which climbed to 115, up significantly from 103 in 2025 and well above the pre-pandemic benchmark of 100 – despite wars, tariffs and market turbulence.
Once the domain of the young, AI use is now spreading rapidly across all investor age groups, though under-45s are the heaviest AI users. Further, advisers are also integrating AI into their own operations, using it for administration, research and regulatory workloads.
The Investor Index, which also researched investor behaviour in Germany and Italy for the first time, reveals British investors as the most likely to turn to AI for financial guidance.
Meanwhile, Germany remains the most resistant, consistent with a broader pattern of distrust towards external advice – with the exception of robo-advisers, which Germans adopt at notably higher rates than their peers.
Across all markets, the direction of travel is towards AI-embedded digital wealth propositions rather than standalone products.
The findings raise important questions for financial services firms as AI-assisted guidance becomes increasingly mainstream.
The pressing question now is how firms position themselves in an ecosystem where investors are increasingly self-informing and AI is democratising access to guidance, particularly for those who might otherwise remain disengaged.
Other highlights from The Investor Index 2026 include:
A significant shift in investor behaviour and mindset has taken place over the past 12 months. Rather than waiting for conditions to improve, UK investors increasingly appear to be adapting to uncertainty and continuing to invest through it.
70% of UK investors now believe long-term investing is more important than ever, with half increasing the amount they invested over the past year and a further 40% maintained their existing level of investment. This growing conviction is reflected across investor groups.
German investor confidence marginally exceeded the UK at 116 while Italian investor confidence lagged significantly behind at 75. UK investors were notably more likely than their German and Italian counterparts to believe markets will recover and that current conditions present opportunities.
“Confidence is no longer closely tied to calm market conditions. Investors seem increasingly comfortable making decisions in a world where disruption and volatility are seen as part of the backdrop rather than temporary events,” said Nicola Wright, Insights Director at The Nursery Research & Planning.
“What’s particularly interesting is how normalised uncertainty appears to have become for investors.”
“The expansion of the Investor Index across three European markets gives us a richer picture of how confidence, behaviour and advice are evolving across different audiences,” said Nicola Davies, Strategy Director at AML Group.
“What this year’s findings show is that the appetite is there across the board. Investors are more resilient than anyone anticipated, advisers are confident about where the profession is heading, and the people who haven’t yet started investing are closer to that first step than they might think.
“For firms, that’s invaluable. The better we understand how each of these audiences thinks and behaves, the better placed we are to serve them.”