AI Use Increases in Retirement Planning

Roughly 20% of people say they use chatbots for this purpose, according to a September study by AI company Pearl. About half of those who already use AI at work also apply it to retirement questions, double the rate of non-AI users at work, the MissionSquare Research Institute found.

Americans expect to work four years longer than desired because of rising living costs and insufficient savings. The median retirement balance for workers stands at $40,000, well below the $1.5 million many say they need to retire comfortably. Social Security could cut monthly benefits by as much as 20% in six years without legislative action.

Some financial planners see value in AI for initial steps. Luke Delorme, director of financial planning and a Certified Financial Planner at Tableau Wealth in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, uses AI to generate ideas or run Monte Carlo simulations that test thousands of market scenarios for annual spending projections.

"I'll say, 'Come up with some financial planning ideas or even run a Monte Carlo simulation to see how much I can spend every year,' and it might not be perfect yet, but it's starting to be able to get to a place where it's producing some pretty valuable output that I think will be beneficial to people," Delorme told CBS News.

Yet large language models struggle with nuances such as tax optimization, regulatory details and longevity risk, according to multiple specialists. Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff said AI tools often rely on average life expectancy from actuarial tables rather than planning for maximum possible lifespan, which can leave retirees vulnerable to outliving their money.

Kotlikoff, who created the MaxiFi retirement tool, added that AI frequently gives incorrect Social Security projections because of the program's 22,000 pages of rules. "It's being trained on Wall Street's guidance, and Wall Street's guidance is all about maintaining and collecting and expanding its assets under management, so that has nothing to do with proper economic-based advice," he said.

Andrew Lo, a finance professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, noted in an April MIT publication that AI lacks fiduciary obligations required of human advisers and often overlooks uncertainties. He recommended users prompt chatbots to list assumptions and admit where answers might be wrong.

Claude and ChatGPT concluded she could retire at 65 but it would be tight with risk of depletion under some conditions. Perplexity was more negative, saying comfortable retirement at that age was unlikely without spending cuts or higher earnings. All three noted assumptions of living to age 90 rather than a possible 100 and omitted precise tax modeling or long-term care costs.

" Delorme pointed to a deeper barrier beyond technical limits: many Americans fear investing and keep savings in low-yield cash or CDs that lose ground to inflation. He said AI might help the two-thirds of people without financial planners understand basics but is unlikely to overcome behavioral obstacles alone.

An unnamed secondary school suffered such an attempt late last year after images were taken from its website or social media, according to the Internet Watch Foundation. The foundation created digital hashes of 150 images classified as child sexual abuse material under UK law and shared them with tech platforms to block distribution.

The early warning working group, which includes the NSPCC, Internet Watch Foundation and National Crime Agency, issued guidance urging schools to remove face-on pupil photos, avoid identifiable names and audit online imagery regularly. Jess Phillips, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, called the school blackmail attempts a "deeply worrying emerging threat" and said laws on AI-generated explicit images would be updated if needed.

Sextortion reports to the Report Remove service rose 34% last year to 394 cases involving under-18s. The Confederation of School Trusts, representing academies educating more than four million children in England, said schools would consider the guidance while trying to balance celebration of achievements with safety.

“As educators we instinctively want to celebrate children’s achievements and that includes sharing photos and videos of all the good things that go on in our schools — it is deeply depressing that in doing so we potentially have to contend with threats from abusers and scammers.”