AI and your pension

Public artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT or Gemini are becoming increasingly popular. They’re used to research anything and everything both at work and at home. AI can be useful for explaining complicated information or helping you explore an idea. But when it comes to your pension and retirement planning, there are some important things to be aware of: 

• Inaccurate information – AI can produce answers that sound confident but are wrong, incomplete or based on assumptions that don’t apply to you. Pension schemes have specific rules and individual benefits, so an AI tool may misunderstand the information or apply the wrong rules to your circumstances. Instead of returning an unknown result, AI might search for an answer using information obtained from other pension schemes, which may have very different rules. 
• Unreliable guidance – AI tools are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the same way that advice from a professional financial adviser would be, so you don’t have the same protections. Basing important financial decisions on AI results could lead to costly and irreversible mistakes with your pension. 
• Security risk – Be careful about the information you share with AI tools. Many AI tools use information submitted by users to improve their services and once your information is shared, you may have limited control over how it is stored, processed or retained. You should never enter personal information like your date of birth, address, National Insurance number and bank details or upload confidential pension documents to a public AI tool. Doing so leaves your sensitive financial and personal data unprotected. 

Using AI safely 

• Keep it general – Stick to general queries about pensions rather than being specific, such as ‘How do UK pensions tax-free lump sums work?’ rather than ‘My NGTPS pension of £xyz…’ 

Guidance about your pension
If you need guidance about your pension or retirement choices, use the Scheme website, My Retirement Planner (accessed via Clarity) or MoneyHelper, the government’s free guidance service. If you need more detailed financial advice, use Origen or your own IFA, regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. 

AI can be a useful tool to help you research pensions, understand your options and prepare questions to ask. However, AI can sometimes provide information that’s inaccurate, incomplete or not appropriate to your personal circumstances. Always check important information and don’t rely on AI alone when making decisions about your pension.