The data: In 2026, 78% of US adults reported using AI-powered tools, and 67% said they're more proficient than they were one year ago, according to a TD Bank survey. But only 18% would trust AI to independently make financial recommendations.

Digging into the data: Demographic cuts show Gen Z and millennials leading adoption: 55% used AI to help make financial decisions, up from 10% in last year's survey. AI adoption for financial decisions was the highest among Gen Zers (77%), followed closely by millennials (72%).

Trust in AI is up YoY but not as quickly as usage This year, 62% of respondents trust AI “somewhat” or “a great deal” to provide honest and reliable information. That is compared to 90% for friends and family, 85% for their bank, 78% for health care apps and telehealth platforms, 58% for the news, and 37% for social media influencers and.

Which customer-facing AI use cases will be successful is an open question. Consumers greatly prefer hybrid and human-only advice to only an AI-enabled tool. And they are only slightly interested in interacting with an AI-powered banking assistant: 22% of Gen Zers, 28% of millennials, 14% of Gen Xers, and 7% of baby boomers were very interested in doing so. But that doesn’t necessarily translate to behavior.

Implications for banks: According to our US Mobile Banking Emerging Features Benchmark 2025, when next-level virtual assistants can’t solve a problem, they pass customers to human customer service representatives—a form of AI-human hybrid assistance or advice.

Banks that want to succeed with transparently AI-enabled tools must look beyond the competitive necessity to actual customer use. They should take advantage of their trust halos, build virtual assistants to meet the bar for basic banking, and then enhance them to compete effectively with how consumers are using general-purpose AI tools for financial tasks.