Old Mutual’s AI warning: should you trust ChatGPT with money?

No, you should not trust ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot as your financial adviser. For South Africans, these tools are useful for explaining money terms and helping you prepare questions, but they can still give wrong, outdated or risky answers that do not fit your real situation.

This follows a MyBroadband report on an interview with Old Mutual’s Ajen Mothee about the dangers of taking financial advice from AI. The published summary is brief, so some details of the interview are unknown. The core point is still clear: AI can assist, but it should not replace proper human financial advice.

What this warning means if you use AI on your phone

The main risk is not that AI is useless. It is that it sounds helpful enough to make you trust it too much. A chatbot can explain a budget, define a tax-free savings account, or help you compare two options you already found, but that is not the same as personal advice.

Your money decisions depend on details AI may not know or may misunderstand. That includes your debt, income, insurance cover, tax position, dependants and contract terms. If the answer could cost you money or remove cover, you need a human check.

What AI is safe to use for, and what it is not

Usually safe uses

• Explaining financial terms in plain English
• Turning your notes into a simple monthly budget template
• Summarising a fee guide or policy wording you paste in after removing private details
• Drafting questions for your bank, insurer or adviser
• Helping you compare features you already found yourself

Not safe on its own

• Telling you which investment product to buy
• Advising you to cancel insurance
• Giving tax answers you act on without checking locally
• Choosing a debt strategy when you are under pressure
• Judging whether a contract is fair or suitable from one short prompt

If you are still deciding which AI app to use, our guide to what AI your phone can actually run in South Africa explains the basics on local devices.

Why AI money answers often fail in South Africa

It may answer for the wrong country

Many chatbots default to US or UK assumptions unless you clearly say you are in South Africa. That can affect tax terms, retirement rules, credit law and even basic banking language.

It may use old or mixed information

Bank fees, rewards rules, policy wording and lending criteria change. AI can blend old and new information into one confident answer. That is dangerous if your decision depends on one clause or one fee.

It can guess when your prompt is vague

If you leave out key facts, the chatbot may fill in the gaps. That is annoying for casual questions, but expensive when you are asking about debt, insurance or retirement.

It can create privacy risk

You should not paste ID numbers, account numbers, full bank statements, payslips or policy schedules into a public chatbot. Even if the service has safeguards, sensitive financial data needs extra care.

How to use AI as a prep tool instead of an adviser

The best approach is to use AI before you make a decision, not to make the decision for you. Let it help you understand the issue, organise your facts and prepare better questions for a real provider or adviser.

1. Tell the chatbot you are in South Africa.
2. Ask it to explain the concept in simple terms.
3. Ask for a checklist of facts you need before deciding.
4. Ask it to draft questions for your bank, insurer or adviser.
5. Verify every important claim with the provider or a licensed human adviser.
6. Only act after checking the real contract, policy or fee guide.

Better prompt: “Explain in simple South African terms how an emergency fund differs from a tax-free savings account. Then give me 10 questions to ask my bank or adviser before I move money.”

Risky prompt: “I have R50,000. Tell me the best place to invest it for the highest return.”

The first asks for education. The second asks for personal advice without proper checks or accountability.

A worked South African example using a phone contract

Example only: You are trying to cut monthly costs and ask ChatGPT if you should cancel phone insurance and invest the saving instead.

Say your current deal is R649/month for a Samsung Galaxy S26 on Vodacom over 48 months with 3GB data. That is one of the tracked deals on our site for the Samsung Galaxy S26. AI might tell you to cut “non-essential cover” and move the money elsewhere. That sounds neat, but it could be wrong if the cover protects a device you cannot easily replace, or if your contract and insurance terms make the change a bad idea.

A safer process looks like this:

• Use AI to list your monthly fixed costs.
• Read your actual contract and insurance wording.
• Check current alternatives on our latest phone contract deals page.
• Only then decide if the saving is real and worth the risk.

Sometimes the simpler answer is not to change a financial product at all, but to choose a cheaper phone next time. For example, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 starts from R4,999. That is not financial advice. It is just a reminder that clear budget choices are often safer than acting on a chatbot's confident suggestion.

A quick check before you act on any AI money answer

You also do not need an expensive phone to use AI carefully. A budget or mid-range device is enough if it runs the app and you have data. If you want more local explainers, browse our AI & Apps coverage.

Frequently asked questions