AI in finance: How U.S. and UK consumers stack up

What UK and US consumers really think about AI and money

In April, we released our State of intelligent finance report for the United States, exploring how AI is reshaping the way Americans understand and interact with their finances. Now, we’re releasing the UK findings, which reveal that the same shift is happening across the pond: AI in financial services is moving from experimentation to expectation—and pushing the industry forward from open finance to intelligent finance.

Powered by open financial data and accelerated by AI, intelligent finance represents a shift from the passive display of people’s finances to active guidance with AI, helping them better understand their options, make more informed decisions, and take action with greater confidence. 

We partnered with The Harris Poll to survey thousands of UK adults to understand how this shift is playing out in their daily lives, asking them questions about AI adoption, trust, and expectations in financial services. The results reveal a shared baseline, as well as notable differences in how consumers view the role of AI in their personal finances.

A shared baseline, with meaningful divergence

The headline finding is striking: AI adoption for financial tasks is nearly identical across markets. 54% of UK consumers and 55% of U.S. consumers have used AI for financial tasks in the past 12 months. In near-identical percentages, both populations also want transparency when AI is involved in financial decisions, the ability to review important AI-driven choices, and strong accountability when things go wrong.

But beneath this shared foundation, the two markets diverge in nuanced ways that matter for anyone building financial products.

Americans are more bullish on growth; Brits are more grounded in daily utility

U.S. consumers show stronger momentum intent: 41% expect to increase their AI usage for financial tasks in the next year, compared to only 33% of Brits. Americans are also more optimistic about AI's potential to deliver fairer outcomes in decisions like loan approvals (37% vs 30%) and they’re more excited by the prospect of fintech apps using AI (46% vs 43%).

UK consumers appear to be adopting AI less as a sweeping transformation story and more as a practical layer for everyday money management: helping them budget, compare products, reduce stress, and understand what to do next. That isn’t skepticism—adoption is nearly identical to the U.S.—but it does suggest a slightly different relationship with the technology, one rooted more in day-to-day utility than near-term enthusiasm.

UK Gen Z and Millennials are driving expectations forward

Here's where things get interesting. While overall adoption is similar, younger consumers in the UK are outpacing their U.S. counterparts in both usage and intensity of expectation.

77% of UK Gen Z and Millennials have used AI for finance in the past year, compared to 72% in the U.S. And their expectations are sharper: 61% of UK younger consumers believe managing money without AI will soon feel “outdated,” versus only 54% in the U.S. They're also more likely to expect AI to save them time, reduce financial stress, and help them save and invest more.

This UK cohort is treating AI as an essential layer of modern financial life and will gravitate to products that deliver it.

Trust is built differently in each market

Both countries want guardrails, but differ in how they want to be reassured.

In the U.S., the top factors that increase comfort with AI-enabled financial apps are protection guarantees, reimbursement policies, and full transparency on AI use. In the UK, the leading reassurance is human approval for major financial actions.

This is a meaningful distinction: while U.S. consumers are looking for safety nets, UK consumers are looking for a hand on the wheel. For product teams, this suggests that supervised autonomy—AI that can act, but with clear human checkpoints—will resonate with particular strength in the UK market.

Context shapes expectation

Finally, U.S. consumers report having experienced financial friction, including credit denial and fraud, at a higher rate over the past year. This may help explain why U.S. consumers are more willing to adopt AI for efficiency, protection, and decision support, having felt the pain points more acutely.

UK consumers, operating in a somewhat less friction-heavy environment, may be adopting AI more as an enhancement than a remedy.

What this means for fintechs and financial institutions

The data points to a clear set of priorities for financial services providers operating in either market: 

• Move beyond analytics to personalized guidance. Displaying balances and transactions is the baseline. Consumers want tools that interpret that data and surface actionable insights, be they a spending alert, a better rate, or a nudge toward a goal. The expectation gap between what consumers want and what most apps deliver is still wide.

• Be explicit about how AI is working for your customers. Trust isn't built through privacy policies, but through products that behave predictably, explain their reasoning, and make it easy to override or review decisions. In the UK especially, human oversight for major actions isn't optional, it’s necessary

• Meet the new financial consumer before someone else does. Younger consumers in both markets are treating AI as essential. If your app isn't answering the questions they're asking, they'll get their answers elsewhere. Competitive advantage isn't about features; it’s about embedding intelligence into the core experience.

• Keep humans in the loop—your customers expect it. Even the most AI-forward consumers want supervised autonomy, not blind delegation. The willingness to let AI act is conditional on the ability to confirm, undo, and understand. Products that respect this will earn deeper trust and longer retention.

The bottom line

For financial services providers, the opportunity is the same in both markets: build products that turn AI from a feature into a foundation—one that delivers real value, earns trust through transparency, and keeps humans in control of the decisions that matter most.

Plaid has been helping build that foundation for more than a decade. From powering real-time financial insights to developing our first transaction foundation model for finance, we provide the global infrastructure that makes intelligent financial experiences possible at scale.

If you're thinking about what intelligent finance should look like for your customers, we're here to help.