The Adoption of Robo-Advisory among Millennials in the 21st Century: Trust, Usability and Knowledge Perception

Abstract

Robo-advisor has become the new personal wealth management and investment method. Nonetheless, certain predicaments are faced by robo-advisor companies as a tech-savvy young group of individuals seems to be less willing to adopt robo-advisory. This study investigates millennials’ adoption of robo-advisory in terms of financial knowledge, trust and usability perception in the 21st century to enhance sustainability. This quantitative study focuses on individuals belonging to the millennial generation who were born between 1981 and 1996. The findings indicate that the millennials who possess financial knowledge, as well as perceived usability and trust have a significant positive effect on the willingness to embrace robo-advisory as a tool for wealth management. The higher the financial knowledge of an individual, the more likely they are willing to adopt a robo-advisor. Government may provide appropriate avenues to enhance financial knowledge, and credible and user-friendly platforms with resources to boost the millennials’ usage of robo-advisors for their wealth management. With robust artificial intelligence, robo-advisory continues to support users, especially millennials, through three dimensions of sustainable development: environment, society, and economy.