Last month, I journeyed to Chicago for the Morningstar Investment Conference – an excellent event. I am always fascinated to talk to US advisers and always struck by how similar they are to advisers here.
My main interest was around the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on financial advice and wealth management. Are they ahead of us, or behind? The session I was most looking forward to was a form of Dragon’s Den where keen, young, AI start-ups were competing against each other.
To my disappointment, it might have been in the UK. The message was the same: AI could cut out many of the routine, time-consuming task that advisers must perform (i.e. fact finding, suitability letters, etc). Of course, AI is not a threat to the planning industry or advisers!
I am sorry, but this is utter tosh. There is a real threat from AI, but also an opportunity.
Those who adopt AI will set new standards in speed, compliance and service that others simply won’t be able to match
Gary Abela of Saturn sees both a threat and an opportunity: “The true threat isn’t AI itself, but advisers who fail to adopt it. Those who do will set new standards in speed, compliance and service that others simply won’t be able to match.
“At Saturn, we’re seeing firms that embrace AI not only cut admin overhead but redefine client expectations entirely, proving that the real disruption comes from early adopters.”
AI efficiencies will cut down on administration work, compliance with regulation and enable advisers to serve many more clients and to reduce fees.
Gary continues, “The greatest gift AI brings to advisers is not just efficiency, but freedom – freedom from admin so they can deepen relationships, deliver more personalised outcomes and scale their businesses responsibly.”
This will make financial advisers so much more affordable to potential clients and may increase the numbers employing them exponentially.
Used wisely, AI will empower skilled human advisers to spend more time on real conversations and judgement
“Affordability is only part of the story. The bigger opportunity is outcomes, earlier identification of risks, more accurate compliance and proactive engagement that helps clients achieve goals they may not have thought possible.”
At The Investment Network, I have a board of wise men and women who think laterally. As such, our next meeting should be challenging and fun. We are going to look at the retirement issue from the potential customers’ viewpoint. Herein lies a real threat to some advisers and, possibly, to D2C platforms as well.
Our potential customer asks an AI platform whether there is enough money in their pot to retire on. A couple more questions and answers could form the basis of a course of action (a plan, even!). We are going to conduct this exercise live.
Nobody is suggesting that the solution provided will be as good as one from a financial adviser. That is not the issue. The issue is simply, does the potential client think the ‘plan’ is good enough? Don’t forget that the cost would be a fraction of an adviser fee.
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Moreover, the process of finding and hiring a suitable adviser is an arduous, time-consuming and frightening one for many. Clients with good adviser relationships are unlikely to move, but advisers need to pay attention to AI and use it where appropriate.
Dennis Hall, a leading chartered financial planner and founder of Yellowtail, says: “I believe AI has the potential to transform financial planning. Its speed of learning and development already far exceeds that of a trainee adviser, and while it can simulate empathy, it cannot truly feel it. Experience tells me that distinction matters.
“Used wisely, AI will empower skilled human advisers to spend more time on real conversations and judgement, where clients most need us. But for those advisers who treat advice as purely transactional, AI may prove to be their undoing.”
Advisers might justifiably say that there was a similar threat when robo-advisers came on the scene. That threat never materialised, although the use of tech and passive funds has made the adviser world far more efficient and eliminated much cost.
AI has already had a bigger impact than robo-advice ever did:
- ChatGPT has 800 million weekly active users as of 2025.
- ChatGPT gets 5.72 billion monthly visits.
- Over 1 billion daily queries are processed on ChatGPT.
It is only a matter of time before the press pushes the case for AI for those considering retirement planning. For those approaching retirement and at retirement, the issues being faced are far more complex.
Andrew Storey, group innovation director at EV, believes the “long term” is a lot closer than people might think. He’s speaking in the context of a common trap, “overestimating the short-term changes but underestimating the long-term impact” of new technology.
Where there is a combination of AI with the right guardrails and calculations, it can be extremely powerful
Unlike robo-advice, access to AI is already widely available, and people are seeing what it can do in their everyday lives. This is creating both curiosity and trust. As its capabilities expand, from simple maths to handling complex financial scenarios such as retirement planning, people will increasingly lean on it for guidance.
However, a key challenge remains. AI can only really provide an indication when it comes to finances. While AI can offer guidance and targeted support, is it robust? Can users tell the difference between a generic model and one with the right guardrails?
Storey says that publicly available AI models don’t have access to a user’s full situation, or any calculations, which prevents them from giving reliable outcomes. However, where there is a combination of AI with the right guardrails and calculations, it can be extremely powerful.
You have been warned!
I suspect that many potential and maybe existing customers will consult a large language model (LLM) to query what impact a legislative change might have on them. I suspect that LLMs will be faster than regulated advisers. I suspect that many will consider following their advice.
Me? I will stay with my excellent adviser. It is the human aspect that I value, and I don’t expect LLMs to compete in my lifetime.
Clive Waller is managing director of CWC Research
