One of my favorite assignments in college was in my world geography class. We had to take the same piece of news and trace how it was reported in different parts of the world.
I chose a story about Yasser Arafat.
Growing up in Saudi Arabia, many of the stories I encountered portrayed him as a leader fighting for his people. After moving to North America, I was struck by how often he was described primarily as a terrorist.
Neither narrative existed in a vacuum. Each reflected decades of history, politics, and lived experience.
That assignment has stayed with me ever since. It taught me that facts rarely exist in isolation. They gain meaning through context.
I think about this constantly in my work as a financial planner.
As I evaluate investment products, tax strategies or insurance policies that promise to be "the best." My first question is rarely, is this a good strategy?
It's For whom?
Because the best financial decision is always contextual. A strategy that works beautifully for one person can be completely wrong for someone else.
Today, more people are asking AI to answer those questions instead.
AI can be an incredible research partner. I use it every day. But like any tool built on data, it reflects the information it was trained on and the way questions are framed.
A recent peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Financial Planning tested seven popular AI platforms using identical financial profiles while changing only demographic characteristics such as race or gender. Recommendations for emergency savings, retirement withdrawal rates, and portfolio allocations varied, even though the underlying financial situation remained the same.
AI isn't unique in this regard.
Search engines, news feeds, and social media all reflect the information they're built on and the incentives behind them. They don't simply present facts, they prioritize certain perspectives over others.
None of this means the technology is broken.
It means we need to bring a little more curiosity to the answers we receive.
Questions I ask myself often:
What information is this based on?
What assumptions is it making?
What perspectives might be missing?
Would someone else receive a different answer?
Looking back, that geography assignment was about learning to pause before accepting any single narrative as the complete story.
That's a habit worth carrying into investing, financial planning, and perhaps every important decision we make.
Because prosperity doesn't come from having all the answers.
It comes from understanding the context before acting.
