6 July 2026
If you are covering The Mills Review: AI and the future of retail financial services, please find below a comment from Sam Christopher, proposition director at Quilter:
“As The Mills Review into AI and financial services shows, AI is already part of the way people engage with their finances on a weekly basis. With the technology becoming more sophisticated at a rapid pace, its influence is only likely to grow, as our research with more than 2,000 UK adults, conducted with Boring Money,* also highlights. While consumers do not yet trust AI to the same extent as traditional financial sources, they already view it as more trustworthy than friends or finfluencers. Given we know many financial decisions are influenced by informal sources, this points to AI playing an increasingly important role in shaping consumer behaviour.
“What is particularly striking is the generational divide. Our research shows, nearly nine in ten under-45s say they are comfortable using AI to support financial decision making, which suggests trust and adoption are likely to increase as younger cohorts build wealth and become more active investors.
“Today, consumers are most comfortable using AI for educational and guidance-based purposes rather than for personalised recommendations. Our research found that 42% of savers and investors would be comfortable using AI to explain financial concepts, compared with 24% who would be comfortable receiving investment recommendations from it. This shows consumers currently see AI primarily as a tool to improve understanding and confidence, rather than replace professional advice. However, as The Mills Review points out, agentic AI is likely to develop and be adopted in far greater numbers than it is today, it creates the potential for far greater automation for consumers, as well as more personalised recommendations.
“As such, there is also a clear opportunity for financial services firms to play a leading role. Nearly half of consumers say they would trust AI more for financial decision-making if the accuracy of the information was guaranteed by a regulated financial provider. Indeed, Mills calls out the fact that hyper-personalisation from AI could enable bias or lack transparency. That underlines the importance of accountability and oversight as firms continue to develop AI-enabled services. Understandably, regulation and governance are going to play a crucial factor here in order to maintain consumer trust and confidence.
“AI has the potential to deliver significant benefits across financial services through greater efficiency, lower costs and improved customer experiences. It could also help the industry better serve those who have historically struggled to access affordable support because of the advice gap. However, customer needs must remain at the heart of adoption. Firms and regulators should work together to create an environment where innovation can flourish, while ensuring consumers remain protected from the risks of inaccurate information, bias and misuse.”
*Source: Boring Money/Quilter survey with 2,002 UK adults conducted between 20th April and 7th May 2026.
