The discovery shift: Is AI closing or widening the UK’s financial advice gap?

The UK’s advice gap is often framed as an access problem, but increasingly, it’s a confidence problem, and AI-enabled search is accelerating both. Millions of UK consumers want to do more with their money: investing, planning, or improving long-term financial security. Yet many never speak to a regulated adviser at all.

According to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), around 23 million people are underserved, while roughly 7 million hold over £10,000 in cash savings without accessing advice. For many, financial advice still feels complex, expensive, or simply “not for people like me.” Instead, increasing numbers are turning to search engines, social platforms, and AI-enabled guidance tools for quick, private support.

This contradiction, wanting advice but avoiding advisers, reflects what Trinity McQueen describes as the say–do gap.

“The say–do gap is often less about motivation and more about confidence. When people feel uncertain, they look for reassurance before they look for advice.”

Before they ask advisers, they ask a bot

AI and digital search have become early touchpoints in moments of financial uncertainty. Consumers use them to explore investments, compare products, and sense-check decisions. Lloyds Banking Group reports that over half of UK adults now use AI tools for financial guidance.

For many, these tools feel fast, private, and non-judgmental, offering a low-pressure starting point. However, this is reshaping the role of regulated advice. By the time customers speak to advisers (if they do), expectations and confidence have often already been formed online. AI driven search can therefore be the first signal that customers are seeking reassurance the market has not yet provided.

“AI-enabled search can build confidence in seconds, but understanding takes more than an answer. It comes from context, clarity, and knowing how guidance applies to real-life circumstances.”

The pre-advice confidence loop

Consumers rarely move straight from curiosity to regulated advice. Instead, they move through a variety of digital reassurance loops. This often begins with a simple search on Google, followed by shortlisting options on comparison platforms such as MoneySuperMarket. Many then sense-check risks and credibility using trusted guidance sources like MoneyHelper.

Opinions and interpretations typically follow. Consumers explore editorial voices through MoneySavingExpert, content creators on YouTube, or increasingly through AI tools such as ChatGPT. Friends, family, and online communities often add further reassurance.

Only after moving through these stages do many consumers act. And increasingly, that action happens without speaking to an adviser. Instead, they may open accounts directly through long-term investment platforms such as Vanguard UK, everyday investing apps like Trading 212, or even alternative asset platforms such as Binance.

The outcome is growing confidence, but not always a deeper understanding. Consumers can form strong views about financial decisions before fully considering how those choices fit their personal circumstances. For insight and marketing teams, this is less of an information challenge and more of a journey design challenge. Every unclear moment increases the chance that customers step outside branded environments and rely on external guidance.

Confidence–Understanding Gap

Two behavioural forces quietly shape this loop. First, confirmation bias. Once someone receives an early reassuring answer, they tend to look for information that supports it rather than challenges it. Searches narrow. Perspectives harden.

Second, the consistency principle. Once we’ve mentally committed to a view, we prefer to stick with it. Even when new context appears, we’re more likely to follow through than rethink.

“Consumers want to feel informed before they feel advised. The challenge is helping them turn information into understanding they can trust.”

From general answers to personal meaning

Many financial journeys now begin with a question typed into a search bar or asked through AI-enabled tools. Each offers immediate reassurance at moments when consumers feel uncertain. However, broad search responses cannot fully reflect individual circumstances, priorities, or long-term goals. Consumers can feel informed while still missing important context.

TSB research highlights this tension, showing that more than half of consumers who acted on financial tips from social media lost money. The issue is not simply misinformation. It’s that reassurance can arrive before true understanding.

“Trust isn’t created by how quickly information appears on a screen. It’s built through how clearly that information is explained and understood.”

The FCA’s Targeted Support

The FCA’s Targeted Support framework, launching in April 2026, aims to narrow the advice gap by allowing firms to offer regulated suggestions to groups of customers without moving into full personalised advice.

The goal is to make guidance more accessible and scalable. However, regulated firms are often not the first voices customers hear. Search, social platforms, and AI-driven guidance increasingly shape early expectations.

For Targeted Support to succeed, it must go beyond broad direction and help customers see how financial choices relate to their own circumstances, making guidance feel relevant and actionable.

What this means for insight, CX, brand and marketing teams

Targeted Support should be positioned as a trusted and personable front door to financial confidence. Not a replacement for advice, but a bridge between curiosity and informed decision-making.

For insight, CX, and marketing leaders, this creates a significant opportunity. Designing the moments where customers hesitate and surfacing value before complexity can help customers understand when to self-serve and when to seek regulated advice.

The firms that differentiate will treat clarity as a competitive advantage. By turning complex financial decisions into guidance that feels relatable and reassuring, they’ll not only help close the advice gap but build stronger, longer-term relationships.

Confidence is shaped long before advice begins. Firms that fail to understand that risk losing relevance at the moment customers are most open to guidance.

“Simplifying complexity is one of the fastest ways to build financial trust. Reassurance at the right moment often matters more than another data point.”

Coming soon…

We’ll be delving into this topic further over the next few months, so keep an eye out for parts two and three coming soon.

Part 2: the first click economy

Why self-serve journeys have become the real advice channel for anxious, uncertain, and time-poor investors, and how the very first digital interaction now shapes trust.

Part 3: the finfluencer gravity well

How social feeds and AI-supported engagement tools are reshaping what mid-life investors believe and follow, and why financial brands could no longer be the loudest voices in the room.