A new report from HSBC, titled The Human-AI Advantage, reveals that investors in the UAE are leading the world in adopting artificial intelligence, including generative AI, for financial research and investment ideation. Despite this enthusiasm for technology, these affluent and high-net-worth individuals still firmly prefer human expert guidance when executing final investment choices. This behavior has given rise to a hybrid advisory model, where artificial intelligence accelerates the initial discovery and data analysis phase, while professional wealth advisors provide essential context, validation, and accountability at the execution stage.
The findings match HSBC’s corporate strategy to expand AI-backed tools for its wealth management teams, highlighted by the ongoing rollout of its proprietary Wealth Intelligence platform, which leverages a large language model drawing from over 10,000 internal and external data points. This trend also aligns with the broader macroeconomic goals of the region. The UAE National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031 views cognitive technology as a pillar for economic diversification, a focus recently strengthened by the formation of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority to unify digital governance and bolster the country’s position as a global tech hub.
Data from the 10-market survey, which included over 700 UAE-based respondents, shows that 98 percent of UAE investors use AI in their daily lives, a peak shared only with India, and far outpacing adoption rates in the United Kingdom and the United States. Specifically for wealth management, 83 percent of UAE investors apply AI to finance and investing, compared to a 73 percent global benchmark. Respondents primarily use these systems for research and analysis, noting that AI increases their confidence during advisory consultations, simplifies opportunity comparisons, and removes emotional bias from portfolio management.
This automated analysis is also shifting how regional investors view risk. Nearly two-thirds of UAE respondents stated that AI improves their understanding of calculated investment risks, a metric that sits well above the global average and doubles the rates seen in Western markets. Local investors also attributed over a third of their portfolio returns during the past year to AI-supported insights.
Even with this high level of technological dependence, trust in human wealth professionals remains steady. Looking forward, 56 percent of UAE investors favor a blended model that combines automated tools with professional oversight, with a substantial portion explicitly using AI for baseline exploration before cross-referencing findings with a human advisor. Executives at HSBC emphasize that clients view these tools as sequential and complementary rather than competitive, using algorithms to scan opportunities quickly and human professionals to validate execution plans. Beyond financial portfolios, the technology is also reshaping lifestyles, with a majority of UAE investors reporting that AI has elevated their overall quality of life and expanded their professional networks.
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