Artificial intelligence and pensions: The risk, the reward and the road ahead for member experience

Artificial intelligence (AI) has moved quickly from an abstract concept to an everyday tool to answer questions and complete tasks – and the pensions world is no exception. Members are already using AI to understand their finances, including pensions, and pension schemes are beginning to explore how these technologies can enhance engagement, improve accessibility and support better outcomes for members.

For those managing pension schemes, this change presents a unique moment: a blend of opportunity and responsibility. If approached thoughtfully, AI has the potential to make retirement planning clearer, more personal and more intuitive than ever before. However, the quality of information members receive from AI is only as good as the data it can access, which poses a challenge: how can we ensure that AI tools are providing accurate information? When members turn to AI for guidance, are they getting answers that are truly relevant to your scheme, or just a best guess from the digital ether? How can we make sure that the guidance delivered is precise, useful and tailored to members' needs – so that, together, we can harness AI to empower members and enhance their understanding of their pensions?

The current landscape: Generative AI tools

Publicly available AI tools – such as ChatGPT and other generative AI systems – are already part of many people's daily lives. With 34% of Britons reporting "frequent" AI use, rising to 58% of 18-24 year olds (YouGov, 2025), we can expect this number to continue to rise amongst all age groups. And even people who don't consider themselves AI users may be using it without realising – for example, when Google shows an AI summary, the percentage of users clicking search result links falls by 47% (Pew Research Centre, 2025). Increasingly, members are using AI tools to get quick explanations, demystify jargon, and seek guidance about their retirement planning and finances.

There is a lot to be positive about. AI can lower the barrier to engagement by offering friendly, instant, plain-language answers. It can spark curiosity and provide a simple route to information.

But the risks are equally real. These tools:

• May generate confident but incorrect answers
• Can unintentionally give "advice" without context
• Depend heavily on how a question is phrased
• Are not connected to scheme rules or governance
• Can only access publicly available data
• Can draw on any publicly available content (including old scheme PDFs buried online), which may be out of date

Increasingly, members aren't just passively uninformed – they can be actively misinformed. Before AI, a lack of engagement often meant members simply didn't know where to start. Now, with accessible AI tools, as well as social media, members may feel they are engaging more deeply, but the answers they receive can be based on incomplete or biased data, poor prompts or generalised assumptions. This creates a new challenge: members may arrive feeling confident in information that is inappropriate to them, irrelevant to your scheme, or simply wrong.

We need to recognise that more members will arrive with prior (and sometimes flawed) AI-shaped assumptions. This makes well-timed, digestible, accurate scheme communications more important than ever. They remain a trusted source of truth that helps members make sense of what they read elsewhere.

Near-term evolution: Scheme-authorised AI assistants

In the coming years, we are likely to see accelerated adoption of scheme-approved AI assistants that operate inside the secure member area. Unlike generic AI chatbots, these assistants work post-login, meaning they can safely draw on scheme-verified member data – such as contribution history, pot size, retirement age or pension type – to provide an accurate, personalised experience.

Built on approved content, clear rules and tightly controlled data access, these assistants can:

• Provide personalised responses based on a member's actual circumstances
• Answer in accordance with scheme rules and nuances
• Offer help at any time, in plain language
• Reduce friction by guiding members directly to relevant actions or documents
• Provide insight to trustees on the questions members really need answering and the quality of the information on offer
• Assist in enhancing the member service provided by administrators

This marks an exciting move from generic AI to tools rooted in scheme truth, which, in turn, gives schemes greater insight into what members are asking. Governance, however, will be critical – particularly around transparency, data protection, response accuracy, and ensuring the assistant does not stray into financial advice.

These assistants won't replace scheme communications, but they could significantly enhance how members access and experience them.

Longer term vision: Interconnected financial ecosystems

Looking further ahead, AI may begin to join up pension information with all aspects of a member's financial life. While this is still some way off, greater integration will support a more joined-up approach to financial wellbeing through:

• Bringing together information across providers (for example, State Pension, pension pots, ISAs and mortgages) to give a clearer view of likely retirement income, based on consistent assumptions
• Providing personalised prompts linked to life events (such as a pay rise, parental leave, marriage or divorce) that update retirement forecasts and triggers the right prompts across products
• Automated, guided journeys that reduce administrative burden by making it easier for members to take actions like increasing contributions, updating beneficiaries or changing target retirement age – even where multiple providers are involved
• Helping members weigh up financial priorities in real time, for example balancing pension saving with paying off debt or building an emergency fund

This future brings significant opportunity – but also greater complexity. Trustees will need to ask: how transparent are the insights and recommendations (and can we evidence where they come from)? Where do we draw the line between helpful automation and over-reliance? And how do we help members understand, challenge and contextualise AI-generated information before they act?
Ultimately, the goal remains the same as it has always been for member engagement: members should feel informed, supported and in control.

But here's the thing: Technology alone doesn't drive engagement

Even the most sophisticated AI assistant can only support members once they choose to engage. Across all scenarios – current, in the near-term and further ahead – members must still proactively seek out information and feel able to act.

This is where Trustees continue to play an essential role. Proactive outreach, timely nudges, clear signposting and supportive communications remain vital, particularly for less confident, vulnerable or digitally-hesitant members.

Trustees shape the environment that members – and increasingly AI tools – rely on. Ensuring scheme communications are clearly positioned as the authoritative source of truth, and that accurate, current and well-governed information is made publicly available online, gives members the best change of receiving valuable information, wherever they turn for answers.

So, what does this all mean?

Despite rapid advances in AI, one constant remains: members – and the AI tools they may use – need a trusted, authoritative source of truth to draw from. AI can simplify complex concepts, provide personalised explanations and make processes more intuitive – but it cannot replace the fundamentals of good governance, trusted communications and thoughtful scheme oversight.

And while AI may make pensions easier to understand and engage with, it cannot overcome financial inertia by itself. Trustees will continue to be central in encouraging participation, prompting action and reassuring members as they navigate key decisions.

AI offers meaningful opportunities for the pensions industry. It can make the member experience more accessible, personalised and intuitive. Genuine transformation comes from combining these tools with what schemes already do best: providing clarity, trust and human judgement.
With strong governance, proactive engagement strategies and a clear focus on member needs, AI has the potential to enrich – not replace – the relationship members have with their pension.

If you're keen to discuss how AI can complement your current member engagement strategy, please get in touch with your regular WTW contact or one of the team below.