An advisor concludes a client meeting, and instantly, AI transcribes the conversation, updates the CRM, and drafts personalized follow-up emails, all without manual input. This is just one of the ways AI is helping financial advisors do more on behalf of their clients.
In the third installment of this special episode of The Disruption Is Now, host Greg Matusky speaks to a number of experts at the AdviseAI conference.
Mark Gilbert, Cofounder and CTO of Zocks, explains how AI automates data extraction from conversations.
Rachel Witkowski, Tech and AI reporter at Financial Planning magazine, discusses the overwhelming influx of AI tools.
Brooke Juniper, CEO of Sage, explores delivering personalized investment advice at scale.
Harry Mamaysky, Professor at Columbia Business School and Chief Investment Officer and Head of Research at QuantStreet Capital, explains how AI works and why it matters.
Together, the conversations explore how AI companies continue to deliver on the promise of automation and scalability faster than expected, offering benefits that far outweigh the friction of emerging technologies.
Watch now:
Key takeaways
AI development is moving faster than anticipated
Mark Gilbert shares that AI advancements are surpassing expectations. His team achieved in two years what they initially thought would take over four.
Their platform listens in on advisor-client conversations and extracts key data points like client goals, life events, and financial details. This information is automatically integrated into CRM systems, eliminating the need for manual data entry.
Advisors can now leave a meeting with all notes and follow-ups already prepared, allowing them to focus more on building client relationships. Mark emphasizes that this rapid development is both exciting and a bit unnerving, as it challenges our understanding of technology’s limits.
Advisors face challenges integrating multiple AI tools
Rachel Witkowski notes that the explosion of AI tools can be overwhelming for many advisors. While each tool offers benefits, from automating investment strategies to simplifying client onboarding, the sheer number makes it difficult to find a seamless fit.
Advisors often struggle with the friction among different applications, which hinders adoption. Rachel notes that some advisors are hesitant to use AI because they desire an integrated system that overlays smoothly onto their existing workflows. She mentions that despite the potential of these tools, without seamless integration, advisors may miss out on the full efficiency gains.
Personalized investment advice is now scalable
Brooke Juniper discusses how conversational AI enables advisors to deliver personalized investment strategies more efficiently. Sage’s platform uses AI to analyze client portfolios, goals, and risk profiles and then generates tailored investment recommendations.
For example, if a client expresses concern about healthcare costs in retirement, the AI can assess their current holdings, suggest adjustments to address this concern, and even draft personalized communications for the advisor to review.
This technology allows advisors to offer customized services to more clients without increasing their workload, effectively bridging the gap between personalized attention and the need for scalability in advisory practices.
Machines process language, but can they be truly creative?
Harry Mamaysky describes how AI models process language based on probabilities derived from vast datasets, which means they can generate coherent and contextually appropriate text, but struggle with true creativity and originality. For instance, when tasked with writing humorous or highly original content, AI often falls back on common phrases and lacks the nuanced understanding that human writers possess.
Harry raises questions about whether AI can move beyond replication to produce language that exhibits genuine creativity, a trait that remains uniquely human. He suggests that while AI can assist with data analysis and summarization, it may not replace the creative spark that advisors bring to client communications.
Key moments
- Mark describes how Zocks’ platform extracts data from conversations (7:52)
- Where Mark thinks AI is headed (10:25)
- What has most surprised Mark about the rise of AI so far (12:43)
- Is AI becoming sentient? (16:57)
- Rachel on the AI tools she uses in her reporting (21:08)
- Challenges advisors face in integrating multiple AI tools (24:50)
- Rachel’s take on the future of AI (26:33)
- Creativity vs need (30:34)
- Brooke Juniper explains how Sage personalizes investments using AI (42:50)
- A multi-agent approach (45:31)
- How AI impacts advisors’ relationships with their clients (48:48)
- AI dissecting financial media (59:48)
- What happens when generative AI hallucinates (1:02:40)
- The genesis of QuantStreet Capital (1:05:31)
- The importance of how models are trained (1:10:36)
- How to get more interesting and original language out of LLMs (1:13:00)
