A representative survey commissioned by Swiss pension and investment provider finpension and conducted by research firm Demoscope in February has found that younger investors place near-equal trust in artificial intelligence and bank advisors.
The poll of 1,016 respondents aged 18 to 79 across German- and French-speaking Switzerland scored sources of financial advice on a scale of one to five. Bank advisors averaged 3.7 points overall, followed by friends and family at 3.5 and independent financial advisors at 3.3. AI scored 2.1, while so-called "finfluencers" received 1.9.
The generational breakdown revealed a striking divergence. Among baby boomers, bank advisors scored 1.2 points above the overall average, while AI lagged 1.0 point below and finfluencers trailed 1.2 points below. For Generation Z, however, that gap collapsed: bank advisors landed exactly at the mean score of 3.7, and AI followed closely at 2.2, just 0.1 points behind.
"For younger generations, this lead over other information sources is significantly smaller than among older ones," said Beat Bühlmann, founder and chairman of the board of finpension. "This is a signal the industry should take seriously."
The study also found that individuals who trust AI and finfluencers tend to be more skeptical of bank advisors overall.
Finfluencers remain a marginal channel for most investors. Seventy-five percent of respondents said they had never sought financial information from social-media finance personalities; just 6 percent do so regularly. Finpension estimates that translates to roughly 200,000 people in Switzerland. Usage climbs sharply among younger cohorts: 61 percent of Gen Z investors have consulted finfluencers, with 16 percent doing so daily or several times a week. By comparison, 13 percent of Generation X and 8 percent of baby boomers report regular exposure.
AI tool adoption is broader. Sixty percent of the Swiss population uses such tools, and 26 percent apply them to financial or investment questions.
Most investors still decide on their own: 53 percent make investment choices independently or with a partner, 35 percent seek professional advice, and 12 percent delegate entirely to a bank or wealth manager. Women are notably more likely to rely on advisory support—44 percent versus 28 percent of men—while men make independent decisions at a rate of 59 percent compared with 44 percent of women.
