AI threatening wealth managers as share prices drop| Insight from Oxford Risk’s Greg B.Davies

February 12, 2026

Following the launch of an AI tax tool, shares in many Wealth Management companies took a bit of a pounding on the UK market yesterday, led by a 12% fall in shares of St. James’s Place. In the following update, Greg B. Davies, Head of Behavioural Finance at Oxford Risk reminds us that something similar has happened before, and that in his view, AI won’t replace advisers; it will make them better.

Commenting on the implications for advisers of the latest market moves, Greg B. Davies, Head of Behavioural Finance at Oxford Risk, said:

“We’ve seen this before. In the early 2000s, online brokerages were predicted to wipe out wealth management. In reality, technology expanded access, the market grew, and human advice remained essential for complexity and behavioural support. AI will likely follow a similar arc.

That said, the market is pricing in a real shift. AI can slash the cost of personalised analysis at scale. But the sell-off conflates speed with advice. AI can generate a detailed plan in minutes. That’s diagnosis — or at least the appearance of it. Advice also requires prescription: helping clients move towards the right solution comfortably, at the right pace, and in a way they can stick with through volatility. Diagnosis alone has never been enough.

There’s also a governance gap to consider. Fast isn’t necessarily compliant or trustworthy. Black-box AI outputs may look coherent, but without deterministic, auditable models behind them, they can’t easily be validated for suitability, consistency, or regulatory alignment. Suitability needs deterministic foundations, and AI should orchestrate around that anchor rather than invent the answer.

Digital-only providers are most exposed. Their clients are often early adopters and more willing to try new tools. That’s an opportunity — but also a vulnerability — unless firms deepen personalisation around what actually drives investor confidence and behavioural resilience.

The firms that win won’t automate advisers away. They’ll use AI to expand what advisers can do: letting it handle data processing, scenario analysis, and scale, while humans focus on judgement, ambiguity, and trust.”