Twenty-six percent of Americans in a recent survey said they were comfortable with full automation when it comes to managing their day-to-day finances, Charles Schwab reported Monday.
This compared with 22% who said they would rely on technology to get takeout food delivered, 18% to find a date and 13% to diagnose a minor health issue.
Eight in 10 respondents also expressed confidence that technology could facilitate the financial planning process. Why? Fifty-five percent considered planning as difficult as training for a marathon, but 56% wanted it to be as simple as booking a hotel room.
For 64% of respondents, technology was a natural first step to getting basic tasks accomplished. At the same time, access to a person was essential for most people in the survey.
Eighty-six percent said they preferred brands that make it easy to interact with a real person, and 43% still preferred more human assistance over automation for daily financial activities.
Specific to their finances, consumers in the survey wanted access to a person who could guide them through bigger money matters such as portfolio management or developing a financial plan. In fact, only 16% thought they could primarily automate the creation of a financial plan.
"Consumers today expect a combination of technology to remove roadblocks and access to a person when they need some extra help, and how they invest should be no different," Tobin McDaniel, Charles Schwab senior vice president of digital advice and innovation, said in a statement.
Edelman Intelligence, a research firm, conducted the online survey in July among 1,000 Americans over 18.
Asked which technology or recent innovation would most likely shape the future of finance, 45% of the survey sample said robo-advisors, 29% cryptocurrencies, 28% artificial intelligence, 21% big data and 12% virtual reality.
Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they expected to regularly use robo advice in their daily lives by 2025, compared with 55% who said AI, 54% virtual reality, 43% augmented reality and 36% cryptocurrency.
