What are the benefits of AI in Wealth Operations?

“Essentially in our particular industry there’s a huge amount of work that isn’t client facing and is behind the scenes pulling things together and doing things that need to be done but don’t necessarily add the value that that could be achieved. AI has the opportunity to improve those processes enormously and actually create more space for individuals, be they traditionally client facing or not, to actually interface with the client. The value of financial advice is enormous but it is best delivered by really understanding your client.” Nick Eatock

Alongside the perhaps obvious operational benefits including automation and speed, more strategic benefits of Personalisation and Integration were also flagged by our audience recognising that AI can support customer needs and outcomes. Although AI is typically perceived to be about ‘cost reduction’ it is important to factor in that it creates opportunities, manages risk and enables consistency and compliance.

“Widening access to advice, getting more people to be able to consume financial advice and get the benefit of it. Personalisation at scale is a huge opportunity for AI in general,” Nick Eatock

When discussing resistance to adopting AI Nick highlighted the differences between open and closed models and the importance of surrounding governance.

“It’s incumbent on all of us to create capability that people can interrogate and use but in a safe and secure way,” Nick Eatock

 Bias in AI was discussed and remains a concern for many which will require robust governance models to underpin BAU and Transformational use of the tools.

“I read something the other day that said it still has many biases, and that was mentioned in the previous session, and it definitely does. You see that if you use it and I feel like although maybe in the future it maybe could do anything, right now it’s not at that point.” Chanelle Pattinson

So, is AI already being used to achieve these benefits? Our panellists highlighted that Wealth Operations and wider industries are already looking and adopting AI. Nick highlighted a survey of financial advisors suggested that 50% of them thought AI would be a part of their business in the next 5 years. Chanelle talked about advice firms are already making use of AI within their client meetings, by recording the meeting, typing up the fact find as well as the meeting notes and then a human going through and checking over it afterwards. Although this is currently being trialled and checked over, some are hesitant that it’s ‘not quite there yet’ and poses the question of can we put our full trust into AI. Chanelle highlighted the differences between start-ups use of AI versus the big providers struggling to adopt AI at pace:

“I think we will see a lot of change. But it’s that battle between distribution and innovation.” Channelle Pattinson

AI was discussed to some extent in all our Wealth Ops sessions last year. The benefits are known, and the appetite is clearly there but adoption remains inconsistent and hesitant. The conversation around AI will inevitably continue in 2024. The need for implementation of appropriate governance and controls will be all important to capitalising on the opportunities and early adopters will benefit operationally and strategically.