Singapore investors embrace AI but still lean on human advisers

Singapore’s mass affluent and high-net-worth investors are adopting artificial intelligence (AI) for investment research at a higher rate than their global counterparts, but most still want a human adviser in the loop before committing to major financial decisions.

That is according to a study commissioned by HSBC and conducted by Ipsos, which polled 609 investors in Singapore in January and February 2026 as part of a wider survey of nearly 10,000 mass affluent and high-net-worth investors across 10 markets.

Some 76% of Singapore respondents said they use AI for finance and investment tasks, ahead of the global average of 73%, with adoption cutting across age groups. Some 72% of both Gen X and baby boomer investors in the city-state reported using AI in finance, against global equivalents of 65% and 59% respectively, distinguishing Singapore from most of the other markets surveyed, where AI engagement skews younger.

High adoption has not translated into reliance, however. Just 8% of Singapore investors said AI was the single most influential source in their last major investment decision, below the global figure of 12%. And while 43% said AI has increased their appetite for calculated risks, that remains under the 49% global average, placing Singapore among the more measured markets alongside the US (44%), the UK (39%) and Taiwan (43%).

Instead, investors are using AI to sharpen their own thinking before seeking professional input. Nearly seven in 10 (69%) use it for research and analysis, 44% for strategy support and 34% to stress-test their own ideas, before turning to advisers for reassurance (79%) and strategic expertise (71%).

Four in 10 Singapore investors described their ideal approach as a hybrid sequence, generating insights with AI before having an adviser validate them, while 57% preferred AI and advisers working together throughout, above the global figure of 50%. Among Singapore’s Gen Z investors, 45% favoured the AI-then-adviser route for generating investment ideas, ahead of their global peers at 38%.

The use of AI is most pronounced at the top end of the wealth spectrum. Among high-net-worth investors – those with at least $2m in investable assets – AI adoption reached 90% in Singapore, against 82% globally. This group attributed an average of 40% of their investment returns over the past 12 months to AI influence, above the 31% average across all Singapore respondents, while 65% said AI makes them feel more in control.

“Our new data tells us that Singapore’s investors are using AI in their financial decision-making with discipline,” said Ashmita Acharya, head of international wealth and premier banking at HSBC Singapore. “They are doing more of their own analysis, arriving at conversations better prepared, and expecting more of the professional advisers who help them as a result. That is not a challenge to the adviser relationship model; it is setting a higher bar for what good advice looks like.”

HSBC has been arming its relationship managers accordingly. Wealth Intelligence, launched in September 2025, gives them access to insights and research drawn from more than 10,000 sources, while AI Prepare, rolled out in May 2026, generates a client engagement pack in seconds by pulling together a client's full financial picture.

The bank also teamed up with Google Cloud in June 2026 to create over 200 new AI use cases across HSBC’s global operations within two years, focusing on hyper-personalised wealth management support among other areas.

“Our investment in adviser-enabled AI, including Wealth Intelligence, AI Prepare and our broader partnership with Google Cloud, gives our relationship managers the tools to work at the same level of rigour as the clients they serve, and to bring something to the conversation that AI alone cannot: deep experience, empathy, clear judgement and accountability for the outcome," Acharya said.

The findings come amid growing efforts by Singapore banks to embed AI into wealth management. Earlier this month, OCBC unveiled OCBC WoW, an avatar banking app that delivers personalised wealth management services through voice or text round the clock.

The avatars handle baseline education and real-time queries, such as explaining a sudden market movement at 3am, while purchases of more complex products are still routed to human relationship managers for regulatory suitability checks, with deterministic guardrails ensuring the avatars draw recommendations only from the bank’s proprietary research.

Far from shrinking its human advisory force, OCBC plans to hire 600 more relationship managers over the next three years, even as it commits more than S$1bn a year to shoring up its digital infrastructure and AI capabilities.