Why young people prefer asking AI over their bank

For eight out of ten young people in Germany, the topic of finance is important. Yet, when faced with a specific financial question, their first stop isn’t a bank branch, but ChatGPT. This is according to the “NextGen Banking & Finance Study 2026” by the Gesellschaft für Qualitätsprüfung, which surveyed 1,000 Germans aged 18 to 30 in January 2026 about their banking preferences. Eighteen percent cite an AI tool as their first point of contact for financial questions—ranking ahead of friends or family (17 percent) and standard Google searches (15 percent).

However, anyone who concludes from this that young people also trust AI is mistaken. When asked about the most trustworthy source for financial matters, personal advice clearly takes the lead at 26 percent, followed by friends and family at 20 percent. AI tools garner only 10 percent in terms of trust, trailing well behind personal banking apps, which stand at 15 percent. Thus, the target group uses AI because it is quick and easily accessible, yet ultimately prefers to rely on a human being.

Not a knowledge problem, but a distribution problem.

This is precisely the study’s key finding: the issue is not a lack of financial knowledge or educational resources, but a lack of accessibility. Financial education exists, yet it fails to reach young people where they actually look for it. This is further confirmed by the advisory aspects that matter most to Gen Z: transparency leads the list at 86 percent, followed by clarity at 84 percent.

However, there is a gap regarding the perceived level of fulfillment: only 73 percent view their primary bank as transparent; the discrepancy is even greater when it comes to personal advice, where the service is rated as important by 78 percent but perceived as actually delivered by only 53 percent. Young people thus expect precisely what financial education is supposed to provide, yet they rarely experience this to that extent with their bank.

This pattern is also evident regarding cryptocurrencies. Just under half of the respondents are interested in the subject; among those interested, 44 percent want simple buying and selling options, as well as—above all—clear explanations and transparency. The desire for information is clearly present, yet current offerings are not yet adequately meeting the needs of the target audience.

What this means for financial education formats

The study also offers a clue as to what a solution might look like. A TURF analysis conducted by the authors shows that a combination of personal advice, chat with real advisors, holistic financial planning via an app, and offerings such as ETF savings plans and cryptocurrencies already reaches 67 percent of the target audience. The key, therefore, lies not in replacing advice with technology, but in combining the two: human advisors serving as anchors of trust, and digital tools providing the point of access.

The choice of channels also reveals where this connection could be established. While Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are the channels most frequently used by Gen Z, users of blogs and LinkedIn demonstrate an above-average interest in banking-related content. Consequently, anyone wishing to engage young target audiences in financial education must be present on multiple levels simultaneously: offering quick, easily accessible content where the majority already spends their time, while also providing in-depth material for information-savvy users who are actively seeking substance.

Johanna Melzer, a working student at Coeo, believes that financial education is not solely the responsibility of schools but also of the home. “Schools must provide the foundational education; otherwise, it depends too much on chance whether a family is able to do so.” In the Coeo Business Rap, Johanna Melzer discusses what young adults need to know about money: https://customerfocus.network/de/anlegen-sparen-oder-ausgeben-was-junge-erwachsene-ueber-geld-wissen-muessen/

The path lies through trust, not technology.

Gen Z does not shy away from financial topics; they simply seek different ways to engage with them. The NextGen study makes it clear that this is not an “either-or” choice between AI and human advice. Young people use ChatGPT and similar tools because they are fast, available around the clock, and easily accessible—not because they trust them more than a human being.

It is precisely in this gap between usage and trust that the real opportunity lies for banks, financial service providers, and educational institutions: those who succeed in combining the convenience of digital tools with the credibility of personal interaction appeal to the target audience on two fronts—reaching them where they already are, and in a way they genuinely trust.

The next generation of financial education

In practice, this means rethinking financial education: not as a one-off explanatory page or an additional app feature, but as an ongoing offering delivered via the very channels Gen Z already frequents—complemented by easily accessible human contacts for the moments that truly matter.

Those who manage to strike this balance gain what the study identifies as the decisive factor: trust. Unlike effective search engine optimization, this cannot be created overnight; it must be built over time through genuine accessibility. This is precisely the key challenge for the future for anyone wishing to win over young people as long-term customers and support them along the way.