General AI assistants

Many investors already use a general AI assistant to read research material. Upload an annual report and ask for the risk factors, paste a transcript and ask what changed in guidance, or ask for a plain explanation of a term in a filing. These assistants are flexible and cheap compared with professional platforms.

They are also the tools most likely to get a number wrong. A general assistant may read the wrong period, misread a table, confuse two companies with similar names or fill a gap with a plausible guess. Some can search the web, and their answers depend on which pages they find. Treat every figure as unverified until you have found it in the source document yourself.

Good habits help. Give the assistant the document instead of asking it to recall facts, ask it to quote the passage behind each answer, and ask for the page or section so you can check it. Use it to organize questions and drafts, not to make decisions.

Think about what you upload. Check each assistant's data settings, such as whether chats are used for training and how long files are kept, before sharing anything private, such as client portfolios or account statements.

A simple routine works well. Upload the filing or transcript, ask the assistant to list the main points with section references, and then read those sections yourself. Ask follow-up questions about what changed from the previous period, and paste in both documents so it compares the right texts.