Integrating AI With Behavioral Economics Can Improve Retirement Outcomes

Improvements in participants’ recordkeeping experiences and engagement could unlock up to $405 billion in 401(k) assets under administration by 2034, according to Accenture’s “Transforming the Retirement Participant Experience,” published in November 2025.

Recordkeepers that integrate artificial intelligence with behavioral economics would be important drivers of this growth, according to Accenture. While plan sponsors and recordkeepers have already leveraged inertia and default biases—through automatic enrollment and automatic escalation features, as prime examples—personalized savings suggestions might produce even better outcomes for the industry, the research suggests.

Use Cases

Accenture suggested that AI advice could improve a retirement saver’s outcomes in the near term, medium term and long term.

For example, in the near term—such as after a participant receives a small salary raise—AI could send a personalized, behaviorally framed message to make the participant receptive to increasing their retirement plan contribution.

“Congrats on your recent raise!” Accenture suggested AI might write to a participant. “If you increase your 401(k) savings by just 2% today, you’ll boost your projected retirement balance by $75,000—without even noticing a difference in your paycheck. Most people like you do this within 30 days of a raise. Tap below to update your savings.”

Behavioral science uses the right timing (soon after a positive event) and social proof (“most people like you do this”) to encourage a one-click action.

Over a longer horizon, Accenture analysts expected AI agents will be capable of serving as a “hyper-personalized coach,” according to the report. For example, if seven years after buying a home, interest rates have fallen and a participant’s credit score has risen, an AI agent might write:

“Interest rates have dropped, and based on your mortgage balance and credit score, you might qualify for a 3.2% rate. If you refinance now, you can reduce your monthly mortgage payment by $500—without extending your loan term! And redirecting that $500 per month into your 401(k) can grow your retirement savings by $200,000+ by the time you withdraw.”

Framing the action as not only the chance to benefit from a rate drop, but also turning $500 per month into $200,000—coupled with “smart defaults” (reinvesting mortgage savings into a 401(k))—can help a participant “overcome procrastination” in saving for retirement, Accenture explained in its report.

In addition, Jeff Brown, a finance professor and behavioral economist at the University of Illinois who was not involved with any research referenced in this story, suggests training AI to leverage high-quality advice and high-quality academic research—to ensure the tool is constantly improving and has updated underlying information, allowing it to accurately rank the effectiveness of ideas offered by human professionals.

Accenture’s report showed that the AI tools could prompt retirement assets to rise by $265 billion due from new participation rate growth and $140 billion from participant contribution increases—bringing total 401(k) AUA to $9.9 trillion by 2034 from $8.9 trillion in 2024, assuming an underlying 6.7% baseline annual investment growth rate over the period.

An AI Adviser

Brown says the shift to defined contribution plans from defined benefit plans in the U.S. essentially requires individuals to make their own choices about the future of their retirement.

“People need advice,” says Brown. “They need it from trusted sources.”

The 2025 PLANSPONSOR Participant Survey found that 50.8% of respondents most trusted a financial adviser as their source for retirement planning information, advice or guidance. Only 0.5% of respondents chose “other resources,” as their source, which excluded family or friends (21%), plan sponsors (20%) and independent media sources (7.6%).

In its Winter 2026 Defined Contribution Participant Pulse Survey, Invesco reported that 55% of respondents reported that they would trust an AI-powered tool more than a family member (45%) to manage their retirement investments. However, more than half of respondents said human oversight (59%) and clarity on how decisions are made (56%) would increase their trust in AI.

“The economics of the industry are such that really good advice tends to be available only to people who have managed to accumulate significant assets and resources,” Brown says. “There’s a huge opportunity for more cost-effective [advice] delivery if you’re able to leverage AI, … especially for people with lower account balances [and] people earlier in their careers.”

More than two-thirds (68%) of respondents to Invesco’s survey said they believe AI can match the performance of financial professionals in managing their retirement assets. However, the vast majority (91%) said it is at least somewhat important that AI tools be paired with access to human advisers.

Tim Hoying, strategy lead for Accenture’s retirement practice in North America, says there is a “fine line” between AI-provided advice and AI-provided education. He says that while AI is more a source of participant education right now, it may begin to supplement or gradually replace both the information and advice that participants currently receive through other avenues. Hoying cautions, however, that the advice, while potentially helpful, runs the risk of inaccuracy or lesser quality than what a financial adviser might provide.

Oversight Uncertainty

While Accenture’s report expressed optimism over the future of AI, it also acknowledged that legacy technology infrastructure, fragmented data architecture and limited funding might present challenges to achieving “real-time, personalized interactions.”

In a similar vein, Brown says that while he imagines some smaller “bugs” getting worked out—such as a participant having to repeat a request to an AI tool several times before it does what is asked—the “underlying technology” needs to improve.

Brown also raises concern that an AI tool might not be considered a fiduciary. He suggests that one solution could be to hold accountable the human responsible for overseeing the tool.

The industry is “probably going to need to develop oversight infrastructure at the same time [it is] developing the technology,” Brown says. He warns that along the way, one might get ahead of the other.

Not all participants will be comfortable disclosing financial information to an AI tool, which Brown says could create another obstacle. Two-thirds of respondents to Invesco’s survey said they would be comfortable with their recordkeeper using AI to personalize their services. Meanwhile, only 56% of Baby Boomers and 47% of women expressed the same level of comfort. Of all respondents, 62% said it was important to maintain personal control over their retirement investments, including while using AI tools.

“We expect that over the next three years, the most successful retirement and recordkeeping firms will create experiences that blend technology and human expertise, using AI to scale personalization while maintaining the trust and empathy that retirement decisions require,” Accenture’s report concluded. “Those who successfully reimagine the retirement experience would not only secure their competitive position but also help fulfill the fundamental promise of retirement systems: providing security and dignity in later life for millions of Americans.”

The 2025 PLANSPONSOR Participant Survey, performed in partnership with Dynata LLC, was fielded in October 2025 among 2,458 U.S. adults, including 1,291 full- and part-time employees who participate in an employer-sponsored defined contribution plan.

Invesco partnered with Ipsos to conduct its online survey of 512 DC plan participants in September 2025.