20 Years of dynamic progress: Our exclusive Q&A with Dynamic Planner’s Piers Lawson on how technology has transformed financial advice

The past 20 years has seen a complete transformation in the way that the financial services profession uses technology. In this insightful Q&A, Chief Technology Officer Piers Lawson talks to IFA Magazine reflecting on his two decades of extraordinary change since joining the industry and Dynamic Planner back in 2005. From the days of desktop software and dial-up connections to today’s cloud-driven, AI-enabled advice ecosystem, Piers shares his retrospective views on how technology has reshaped the adviser–client relationship, what lies ahead for data and AI in financial planning, and why, after 20 years at the heart of innovation, he still believes technology’s ultimate goal is to make advice more human.

IFAM: Piers, you joined Dynamic Planner 20 years ago, in the aftermath of the tech bubble – how was technology used by the advice industry back then?

PL: I joined Dynamic Planner in 2005, when many of the applications IFAs used were still desktop-based. Dynamic Planner was one of the first to be online-only. I remember being impressed at having been able to try the software myself before my interview, because even back then it supported an online client-facing portal. However, much of the software available to advisers was geared around their workflow, rather than clients’ needs. Also, the online tools felt like desktop applications: lots of menus and grey, rather than the intuitive designs today’s users expect.

Internet access was becoming reliable in the office, but certainly wasn’t when advisers visited clients. And data rarely flowed between the user’s different systems, so re-keying was a daily chore. Some of the ideas were there already – sharing data, client collaboration, online access – but the tools and infrastructure hadn’t caught up yet.

IFAM: Dynamic Planner has evolved enormously during the time you’ve been with the business. How has your vision for technology’s role in the advice process changed over those 20 years?

PL: Over the years, as the regulatory load has increased, it has become even more important for technology to take away the grind of the advice process: the handle-turning tasks that drain time and energy. The best systems today let advisers focus on what really matters – on engaging with their clients, rather than on the admin of managing those clients. Technology can make that engagement easier and more convenient – and should ideally do that seamlessly, fading into the background rather than being a focus in itself.

While many things have changed, one big driver remains. It has always been our goal to lower the barriers to getting good advice and guidance, so everyone who needs help with their finances can get it. Today, the technology is catching up with that ambition. Cloud-based hosting, process automation and, more recently, AI are turning that ambition into something we can deliver, alongside the firms we serve.

IFAM: What has been the most extraordinary technological change over the last 20 years?

PL: There are a few contenders. Smartphones brought always-on connectivity, putting the internet, communication and data into everyone’s hands. Cloud computing has completely changed how we build and deliver software. But both are evolutions of earlier ideas: mobile phones becoming smart devices; on-premise server rooms moving to cloud-native services.

So the change that could have the biggest impact is probably the rise of generative AI. For many outside the AI community, large language models (LLMs) seemed to appear overnight, and they’re completely changing how we interact with technology. I worked on “neural networks” in the mid 90s, but LLMs are light years away from those early incarnations of AI. For most people, this doesn’t feel like a logical next step, but like a jump into the future. Suddenly, we are talking to software in natural language and getting coherent responses. That shift has the potential to reshape how advisers and clients engage with information, decisions and each other. As we look ahead, agentic AI has the potential to go even further, helping systems act intelligently and safely on our behalf.

IFAM: How do you keep Dynamic Planner and its technology ahead of the curve in such a fast-moving industry?

PL: For me, staying ahead isn’t about chasing every new technology, but about curiosity and anticipation. We try to understand how emerging trends will impact our customers and prepare to support them. As data analytics and data lakes have become central to how forward-thinking firms operate, we’ve been investing in making data flow more freely. When customers wanted their systems to connect seamlessly, we had already begun building open APIs. As they begin automating workflows and experimenting with agentic AI, we are looking at how we can make those APIs AI-ready. And as end clients expect to see their financial plan at the touch of a button, we provide mobile experiences that make that possible. It’s about keeping abreast of the innovations heading our way, anticipating what customers will need next and building the foundations early, so innovation feels natural when it arrives.

IFAM: How is AI transforming the working lives of advice professionals, as well as the lives of their clients when it comes to financial planning and investing?

PL: AI is starting to narrow the gap between information and insight. Gathering and generating accurate data quickly, consistently and deterministically is vital to the advice process, and automation already plays a huge role. Where AI will add value is in personalising how that information is delivered and understood. It’s not about sprinkling a report with pleasantries or referencing a client’s recent holiday, but about helping clients really understand what they’re being told and recommended. That might mean text or visuals tailored to their learning style, or allowing them to ask questions about their plan and giving them clear, context-aware answers.

Importantly, using AI in this way doesn’t replace human judgment; it amplifies it. The best advice outcomes will still come from a trusted, personal relationship. AI can help both sides spend more time on the part of the process that matters the most: understanding each other.

IFAM: What role do you think data will play in the industry over the next 20 years?

PL: Data has always been crucial to giving good financial advice, but it still doesn’t flow as freely or as reliably as it should. Over the next 20 years, I think that will finally change. As open standards and APIs mature, and as automation and agentic AI become standard practice, data will move securely and intelligently between systems rather than sitting in silos. For advisers, that means a complete, accurate picture of every client. For clients, it means advice that’s timelier, more relevant and easier to understand. The FCA’s recent research note on open finance and open banking highlights that progress is being made, but also that challenges remain around alignment, trust, and commercial models. The next 20 years of progress won’t come from collecting more data, but from gathering what already exists more effectively, responsibly and collaboratively.

IFAM: Have we followed a trajectory that was predicted 20 years ago or have we jumped forward in much larger steps because of the advent of cloud computing, smartphones, superfast global wifi, nanotech etc? If so, what do you predict over the next 20 years?

PL: I don’t think anyone predicted the scale or speed of change we’ve seen. Two decades ago, we imagined gradual progress (better desktop software, faster broadband), not an entirely new digital landscape shaped by smartphones, cloud computing and now AI. What’s interesting is how many of the old challenges still exist: data integration, security, trust!

Looking ahead, I expect the next wave to be about intelligence and agency, with systems that act safely and collaboratively on behalf of humans (in our case, advisers and clients). Advice will become more continuous, more contextual and more accessible. Perhaps we will see some clients’ finances being actively managed for them by advisers providing guard rails within which AI agents will operate. This lighter-touch, automated and targeted approach should help people get advice earlier in life, when it can have the biggest impact, while still allowing for deeper, more personal engagement at the most significant moments. If the past 20 years saw a revolution in connectivity, perhaps the next 20 will be about co-operation between people, systems and data to make financial advice more accessible, more personalised and more human.

IFAM: It’s clearly been a period of massive change. One last question then Piers: we wonder if you are a keen adopter of technology outside of work or not? What tech gadgets do you think are having/will have the biggest impact in daily life?

PL: Because I work in technology, people might assume my home must be a showcase for the latest cloud-connected gadgets. In reality, I’ve gone the other way. I run a system called Home Assistant on a tiny computer tucked under the TV, linking all the smart devices in the house. It is an open platform, allowing me to plug in systems from many different companies (Ikea, Amazon, Google, Apple etc) and yet have one coherent place to control everything. There’s a sense of creative freedom in being able to build my own automations and truly understand what’s happening behind the scenes, and it’s satisfying watching it all just work.

For me, this system is a small reminder that technology should empower people, not constrain them. Transparency, privacy, inter-connectivity and personal control are all important, both at home and in financial services.