AI-POWERED FINANCIAL PLANNING TOOLS AND RETIREMENT READINESS AMONG IT SECTOR EMPLOYEES IN INDIA:A STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELLING APPROACH
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29121/ShodhPrabandhan.v1.i1.2024.86Keywords:
Ai Financial Tools, Retirement Readiness, Digital Financial Literacy, Pls-Sem, Tam, It Sector India, Robo-AdvisorsAbstract
The proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) in personal finance has created new avenues for improving retirement readiness among India's growing IT workforce. This cross-sectional empirical study investigates the influence of AI-powered financial planning tools — including robo-advisors, AI-based budgeting assistants, and algorithm-driven investment platforms — on the retirement readiness of IT sector employees in India. Grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Financial Capability Framework, this study employs Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) on data collected from 412 IT professionals across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai during the calendar year 2024. The results reveal that perceived usefulness of AI financial tools (β = 0.421, p < .001) significantly mediates the relationship between digital financial literacy and retirement readiness. Trust in AI recommendations (β = 0.318, p < .01) emerges as a significant moderator. The model explains 64.3% of the variance in retirement readiness (R² = 0.643). The study contributes original empirical evidence on the role of AI-driven financial awareness in shaping long-term financial security among India's IT sector workforce and offers practical implications for employers, financial institutions, and policymakers.
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