Retirement Insights
By Renee Coughlan
The good news is that AI is starting to have a positive influence on this early part of the journey. It gives consumers the ability to ask basic questions privately, at any time, without feeling judged or embarrassed. For someone who doesn't know the difference between a retirement annuity and a unit trust, or who feels unsure about how much they should be saving, the ability to ask a simple question and get an answer in plain language can make retirement planning feel less intimidating. The 2026 research findings suggest that this shift is already well underway. AI is increasingly being used as a source of financial information, particularly among lower-income consumers where 74% of respondents who use AI say they do so for financial information. The findings also show that lower-income AI users are significantly more likely to have a retirement plan than those who do not use AI. That doesn't mean that AI has created those plans for them, but it does suggest that access to information can help people take the first step on their retirement planning journey.
Of course, while that first step is valuable, it's not enough. That's because retirement planning is not only an information journey; it's a decision-making one. A person can learn from AI what a product is, what compound growth means or why preservation matters, but they still probably won't know how to apply this information to their own circumstances. The weakness of information on its own is that it can sound complete and 'fool' a person into thinking they are taking action, while still being too general to guide a real decision. So, an individual may learn what a retirement annuity is, but this knowledge doesn't help them answer the personal questions about the product like: "Can I afford this now?" "Should I pay down my debt first?" "How much money should I also put aside for emergencies?" "What happens if my income changes?" And "How do I balance my own retirement with my family responsibilities?"
AI can help people arrive at those questions sooner, but it takes human guidance and advice to help answer them in the right order and with a clear view of consequences and possible trade-offs involved. A trusted adviser can also challenge false confidence. So, when a person has a product and believes they have a plan, the adviser's role is to ask whether that product is enough, whether it is suitable, whether it is being preserved, and what else is needed to protect the retirement outcome. With that in mind, AI and human advice should never be seen as opposing forces. They are most powerful when they work together. AI can make financial education more accessible and lead customers to vital advice conversations feeling better informed and more confident.
But advice remains a human imperative, because retirement is ultimately human. It is shaped by family, work, health, debt, behaviour, fear, hope and uncertainty. No automated tool can fully understand those realities without context provided through a conversation with a trusted professional. So, while the opportunity exists for the retirement industry to use technology to widen access, it also has a responsibility to strengthen the human guidance that turns that information into the best possible action. As AI helps more South Africans start asking questions about retirement, advisers need to be on hand to help them use the answers to make better decisions.
