Where are Americans leaning hardest on AI to invest? California, says Investing.com. But the states right behind it are a long way from the usual finance hubs.
The new Investing.com AI Investing Index looked at a year of user activity nationwide. It tracked how often people used AI for investment research and how much they engaged with AI focused stocks, then adjusted for audience size in each state.
Ohio and Colorado tie for second, with Florida and Texas next. Utah, Hawaii, Michigan and Minnesota also land in the top 10. New York, Wall Street’s home, only manages 13th. New Jersey is down at 27th.
Florida had the most AI assisted research of any state in the study, and Pennsylvania led on interest in AI stocks.
“AI has opened up information that was previously out of reach for retail investors, and that’s leveling the playing field with the professional side of the market,” said Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com.
The ranking builds on a March 2026 Investing.com survey where 62% of US retail investors said they’d already used AI to help with an investment decision.
Zoom out and the US ranks 19th of 66 countries. Italy, Poland, Israel, Chile and Argentina make up the global top five.
Herald View
Keep in mind what this actually measures. It’s how Investing.com users behave, not American investors as a whole, and that should temper every headline about it. Each state’s rank hangs on who uses the site there, so New York’s 13th place probably says more about the platform’s audience than about Wall Street’s interest in AI. The number worth noticing is the global one: the US is 19th, trailing Italy and Poland. If data from brokers or other platforms shows the same state order, the story holds up. Otherwise it’s a marketing map.
