Empowering Long-Tail Investors Through Financial Technology: Evidence from Robo-Advisory Adoption in China

Abstract

Financial technology (FinTech) has emerged as a catalyst for global sustainability projects as technology advances. Digital breakthroughs such as blockchain, artificial intelligence-powered analytics, and inclusive digital platforms are being used to democratize climate resilience investments and enhance environmental, social, and governance alignment across financial institutions. The purpose of this study is to perform an empirical inquiry of the potential of robo-advisors to see if they can make wealth management more accessible to individual investors by increasing affordability. The authors use longitudinal panel data from the China Household Finance Survey and the Digital Financial Inclusion Index to investigate the impact of FinTech infrastructure on automated investment advising service acceptance. The findings indicate that robo-advisors dramatically increase the number of retail investors. The inclusion of a larger number of people in the financial system can promote and encourage more logical investment decisions. Given these findings, it is clear that FinTech-driven solutions have the ability to close investment service gaps and promote equitable and sustainable financial inclusion in developing economies.

Received: 7 July 2025 | Revised: 10 December 2025 | Accepted: 17 April 2026

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support this work are available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.

Author Contribution Statement

Fei Wei: Formal analysis, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Funding acquisition. Jianting Zhao: Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Visualization. Yuting Zheng: Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Visualization. Fangyuan Zhu: Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Visualization. Yu Zhu: Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Visualization. Ruyi Ding: Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Visualization. Anna Xi Chen: Methodology, Software, Writing – original draft. Sonia Chien-I Chen: Conceptualization, Validation, Formal analysis, Resources, Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.