Expert: Rob Tedder, Account Manager UK, Conquest Planning Facilitator: Ben Wright, Director of Progress, Change Squared and Paul Miles, Founder, Silverback Consultancy
Headlines:
- There is still a massive amount of confusion about what AI is across financial advisers
- Some are presently using it, others have yet to start, but there needs to be more education for advisers about how to use AI safely in their businesses
- AI will save advisers time, but not replace them (yet)
- Many advisers feel excited about the prospect of AI, but at the same time don’t know why they feel excited
- The most powerful use of AI was thought to be finding useful patterns in your data
Context:
All delegates had heard of AI but everyone had different views as to what AI was and how it worked. Some said they were using it in their businesses, but when challenged it turned out to be more process automation. Establishing what AI was created a heated discussion amongst the delegates, which continued throughout the session.
Some were scared by AI and thought it didn’t have a place in financial planning. Others thought it would change financial advice significantly and for the better.
Can AI could help with ‘Guided Advice’:
Most delegates said that they could see a large language model (like ChatGPT) writing reports for them in the future. The extent of this varied, mainly based on delegates knowledge of AI. Some were concerned it couldn’t get the right tone of voice or correctly relay emotional drivers.
Delegates that had more knowledge of AI were much more bullish about its capabilities, with one suggesting that it would replace advisers in 10 years.
Some delegates thought that AI could help clients complete information pre-meeting. An AI chatbot asking questions, which clients could answer verbally, was floated as a much easier way for clients to complete the fact find before they see an adviser.
Some delegates said that this detracted from the advice process as they got value in asking clients for data, while others disagreed, stating if the data was already there, the conversation could be more focussed on the client’s goals.
Most delegates thought that clients would be more likely to engage with AI if they thought it was a human. This led to a debate on the ethics of using a “deep fake” of the adviser to speak to the client, to save the adviser’s time.
Whilst a lot of the conversation was around large language model AI, a number of delegates felt that interpreting their data was where AI could add most value. Financial advisers have so much data that AI could look for patterns and help identify hidden trends, which would help the adviser to predict what clients were going to do next and be pro-active rather than reactive.
Concerns were raised about the privacy of data being put into AI and that a “private AI” would be needed to maintain confidentiality, or at least something more GDPR compliant than ChatGPT.
There’s a wariness about black box advice. Delegates felt one of the issues with using AI is the “black box” way it creates advice. We don’t really know how AI concludes, therefore there was a wariness where it gave advice, who was liable. This reinforced the importance of having someone who knows what they are doing controlling the AI – i.e an unqualified admin may not spot errors, where a qualified adviser would do.
There was also a discussion about ‘scamming’ and the fact that AI will only continue to get better at it.
WilI AI replace Paraplanners?
Delegates thought the role which would be most impacted by AI was paraplanning. Most had seen ChatGPT in action and felt that as AI developed, it’s large language model capabilities would quickly be able to remove the need for paraplanners.
One firm had introduced AI into their sales process from Sep 2022. They record all meetings, whether online or f2f, using the Microsoft echo system. They are now using a new tool, co-pilot in which the whole meeting is recorded and automatically fed into the CRM. The software then converts the recording into bullet point action points. The paraplanner can then create reports based on everything that happened in the meeting with the client. It is therefore the paraplanner who produces the report. This must surely provider better outcomes for clients.
Most advisers thought that they would never be replaced, although one adviser predicted that AI would replace advisers in 10 years.
Key takeaways:
- AI will save advisers time, but not replace them… yet
- Interpretation of data will be the most powerful use of AI
- Some advisers feel excited about the prospect of AI, but at the same time don’t know why they feel excited
- Better and more consistent client outcomes when using AI
- AI will be able to read body language
