Artificial intelligence (AI) may seem like a new phenomenon to some people, but it has actually been ingrained in global business and social culture for decades. Internet search engines, for instance, were among the first adopters of early AI capabilities.
Today, AI’s sweeping influence is likened to the industrial revolution, only this one is much more explosive in changing how we live, work and even invest. With AI quickly gaining ground in the areas of customer service, administration and financial planning, we think defined contribution (DC) retirement plans and sponsors are ideally suited to harness the technology. Our research suggests that plan participants are ready for it too.
AI’s Growing Presence in Retirement Readiness
Plan participants’ overall appreciation for AI is somewhat mixed. Thirty-eight percent expressed positive feelings about it, 36% were neutral and 26% negative in AB’s 2025 Inside the Minds of Plan Participants survey results.
Participants were more accepting when the questions touched on how AI could help them. For example, a combined 63% of respondents said they were at least open to making decisions based on AI-generated financial advice, including 15% who were very favorable, while another 15% were flat-out opposed (Display, left).
We also asked participants if they favored advice from an AI source or a real person. Human advisors were preferred by 53% of respondents, while 36% were split and 10% (mostly younger participants) skewed sharply toward AI (Display, right).
Human or not, sage financial advice is needed more than ever. DC plan enrollment and savings have reached historical highs, and with longer lifespans comes a growing need for guaranteed income solutions. Yet 65% of survey respondents said they don’t use a credentialed financial advisor to keep them on the right path. Many mistakenly think that their retirement savings are too small for an advisor’s time, taking their chances on their own or online instead.
Younger participants, particularly Gen Zers and Millennials, frequently turn to social media outlets for financial education. There’s clearly no shortage of “finfluencers” to follow, but whether they’re trusted sources of advice is questionable, according to our survey. Widely available large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are another source for retirement planning content. But a recent MIT study suggests that LLMs don’t grasp the client’s emotional state of mind like a custom AI experience or human can—for now.
AI’s Versatility in the Retirement Plan Complex
As fiduciaries, plan sponsors are careful about dispensing financial advice on an individual level. But at our recent DC symposium in Nashville, we saw firsthand that it helps when advice can be efficiently customized at scale.
A poll of attending sponsors, recordkeepers and other industry leaders suggested that AI is the logical path for them to get there. Most agreed that AI’s ability to offer personalized investment advice across a wide plan-participant population is among its most compelling capabilities, along with enhanced customer support.
Sponsors that embrace AI also find it very helpful for administration, particularly with its targeted communications strategies and participant behavior analysis. For example, AI can run participant-level simulations that visualize future retirement income or show the impact of their Roth IRA conversions. Productivity tends to improve with AI as well; some sponsors and advisory services report that it handles nearly half their routine participant touchpoints.
Overall, we see five categories where AI can help sponsors right now, each able to either improve the participant’s experience or the plan itself (Display).
Welcome Aboard the Plan, AI
AI workplace adoption isn’t always smooth sailing. The idea can take time to gel among employees, especially when some seem convinced it will eventually supplant them. We consider AI as more of a co-worker than a replacement for humans, and like-minded sponsors are finding creative ways to foster that idea.
Some sponsors attach internal nicknames to their AI platforms (“Ben” or “The Intern,” for instance), giving it a human persona—and hopefully speeding up acceptance. We’ve seen the more successful AI scenarios typically pair the “bot” with a strong human champion who provides training, quality control and performance reviews, just as they would with any direct report. AI can’t do it all, so we think sponsors should turn to systems that provide higher-level support from a live colleague when participants need it.
Like every groundbreaking technology, from the printing press to the internet, AI is a game changer. It’s already transforming plan sponsor capabilities and the resources available to participants. Full acceptance is some time away, but AI’s supportive role will eventually become more prominent in the retirement plan arena. We think sponsors who aren’t at least thinking carefully about AI now are already late to the game.
- Jennifer DeLong
- Managing Director—Head—Defined Contribution
- Heather Balley
- Director of Participant Communications—Defined Contribution
“Target date” in a fund’s name refers to the approximate year when a plan participant expects to retire and begin withdrawing from his or her account. Target-date funds gradually adjust their asset allocation, lowering risk as a participant nears retirement. Investments in target-date funds are not guaranteed against loss of principal at any time, and account values can be more or less than the original amount invested—including at the time of the fund’s target date. Also, investing in target-date funds does not guarantee sufficient income in retirement.
AB’s web-based plan-participant survey is based on a national sample of more than 1,200 employees. Of these, 1,000 were full-time workers participating in a workplace retirement savings plan at their current employer and 200 were retirees who had previously worked full time and participated in a workplace savings plan.