The implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) into advice is a “win-win situation” for IFAs.
Multiply co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO) Mike Curtis told Money Marketing that he sees AI as a “beneficial to customers and clients” .
This is despite there being a lot of “fear and uncertainty around the technology”.
Multiply co-founder and chief executive Vivek Madlani explained that the company will licence its AI software to an advice company who will then use it to launch its own app.
Currently, about “two dozen” financial firms are in talks and want to roll-out Multiply tech as an app.
These include big and small advice firms, life insurance firms and banks.
Madlani said Multiply was founded nearly seven years ago, with the aim to make advice more accessible.
He claims the cost of using Multiply software with an advice firm “can be 10% of what face-to-face advice costs”.
Multiply is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and Madlani said: “I think we are the only regulated firm to provide AI services.”
After working in finance for 12 years, Madlani spent a lot of time with financial advisers where he saw “first-hand, how valuable an adviser is”.
Madlani added: “Lots of people do not understand advice and the impact it has and just how powerful it can be.”
Curtis who comes from a tech background and has a PhD in astrophysics said “advice is a very human led service” and that he does not believe “AI will take adviser jobs”.
Still, “organisations should only deploy humans where they need to.”
Curtis believe that due to the explosion in popularity of ChatGPT, there is a chance that people have already attempted to get financial advice from an app.
“The industry is going to be forced to deal with that somehow.”
Originally, Multiply offered a direct-to-consumer (D2C) app but saw such strong demand it is now focused on the advice market.
“It is rapidly growing”, Madlani added.
Madlani said: “The average person’s default response is that they are bad with money, but with the help of AI we can change the default from bad to good in 10 years time as more people get cheaper advice from an app.”
