As AI adoption accelerates across financial planning, Samantha McBride, Founder of Ani Tech, believes the industry is only scratching the surface of what the technology can really do. Speaking exclusively to IFA Magazine’s Deputy Editor Jenny Hunter, she explains why advisers shouldn’t fear AI, why regulation could actually accelerate adoption and why “human advisors” may ultimately become the premium choice.
Sam herself came into AI through a fairly unconventional route. Having started her career in finance, with roles spanning wealth management, institutional asset allocation and quant-driven hedge fund management, she became increasingly interested in how technology could improve efficiency across financial services and taught herself to code, which ultimately became her business. That business eventually evolved into Ani Tech, an AI company focused on building agentic AI systems for firms across investment management and financial advice
The industry is still in early adoption mode
Artificial intelligence may dominate industry conversations right now, but according to Sam, financial advice firms are still only at the very beginning of what meaningful AI adoption will eventually look like. While many advisers are already experimenting with tools that can transcribe meetings, summarise documents or help draft emails, she believes the industry has yet to reach the point where firms are truly transforming the way they operate.
Interestingly, Sam believes individuals often see the benefits of AI faster than firms themselves. She pointed out that people who genuinely embrace the technology in their day-to-day lives are already finding significant productivity gains, whether that’s reading large PDF documents, brainstorming ideas, organising thoughts or improving workflows.
“I think anyone who is truly embracing AI is probably seeing meaningful results in their day-to-day,” she said. However, she believes there is still a clear divide between enthusiastic adopters and more cautious users inside firms. “In each firm, I would imagine there are a few super users of AI, and the rest of the firm is still a little bit cautious.”
Freeing advisers from admin
One of the biggest opportunities for AI, according to Sam, is removing some of the administrative burden that has gradually built up around advisers over the years. While much of the current focus has been on meeting transcription and note-taking, she believes those use cases are already becoming relatively basic compared to what is coming next. “This technology is now solved,” she said. “This is no longer a problem.”
Instead, she believes the real value lies in giving advisers more time to focus on clients rather than processes. Referencing how the profession has changed over the years, she joked: “Back in the 80s, an advisor’s job was essentially just going to the pub with their clients.”
Behind the humour is a serious point. Layers of regulation, administration and bureaucracy have steadily transformed the role of advisers, often leaving far less time for meaningful client interaction than many would ideally like. “We’ve essentially had decades of layering up admin and regulation and bureaucracy, and that’s now taking up most of an advisor’s day-to-day,” she explained.
For Sam, the goal of AI should not be replacing advisers, but helping them operate more efficiently and spend more time where they add the greatest value. “Ultimately, it’s client interactions and the outcomes,” she said. “Everything else should be automatable and getting more and more efficient.”
That is particularly relevant given the growing concerns many firms have around tech stacking. Advice businesses are increasingly juggling multiple systems, platforms and providers, all designed to solve different operational challenges. Sam believes the next phase of AI could simplify that considerably.
Why regulation could actually help AI adoption
Unlike some, Sam does not see regulation as a barrier to AI adoption in advice. In fact, she believes the opposite may be true.
“Regulation is the forcing mechanism of AI, as opposed to preventing it” she said.
She pointed to compliance file checking as one area where AI could create major efficiencies and potentially improve outcomes at the same time. Traditionally, many firms rely on risk-based sampling, meaning only a small percentage of advice files are checked. AI, however, creates the possibility of reviewing every case instead.
“With the firms we’re working with, we’re putting 100% of cases through checking,” she explained. “The whole process gets better, everything is being monitored, and it’s an improved overall process.”
Rather than seeing the FCA as standing in the way of innovation, Sam also praised the regulator’s approach to AI so far. Ani Tech participated in the FCA’s AI Supercharged Sandbox programme, something she described positively. “The way that FCA is approaching all of this leaves me very optimistic for the future,” she said.
She also suggested that, over time, AI could fundamentally reshape the compliance process itself. As AI becomes embedded earlier into workflows, firms may eventually move towards systems that are effectively “compliant by design”, where many checks and safeguards happen automatically throughout the advice journey rather than retrospectively.
The rise of AI colleagues
A major theme throughout the discussion was “agentic AI”, which Sam believes will become increasingly important across financial advice businesses in the coming years.
Unlike traditional AI workflows that simply follow fixed instructions, AI agents are designed to operate far more autonomously. “Agents are empowered with certain capabilities,” she explained. “They’re given instructions about tasks that they need to complete and then can autonomously act and figure out the best way to do the task.”
At Ani Tech, those agents are structured almost like virtual employees, each with specific responsibilities and capabilities. “We have agents who are roles-based, so think of them as essentially having names and specific job descriptions,” she said.
Perhaps even more interestingly, the systems overseeing those processes are also AI-powered. “We have three internal agents who are our guardians that essentially act as the guardrails,” she explained.
While that concept of AI monitoring AI may sound futuristic, Sam believes it will quickly become normal across businesses. She predicts that the way advisers interact with technology is likely to change significantly over the next few years, moving away from endless software platforms and towards AI-driven interfaces and workflows. “My prediction is, in two years, there’ll be more agent-to-agent communications than there will be human-to-human in every organisation,” she said.
Human advisers will become the premium choice
Despite the pace of change, Sam does not believe AI will eliminate the role of advisers. If anything, she believes the opposite could happen.
“I think fundamentally AI could take over the advice journey,” she said. “But I don’t think that’s where we’ll get to.”
Instead, she sees a future where AI expands access to financial guidance while simultaneously increasing the value of human interaction. “My optimistic way of thinking about this is that having this technology available will drive higher demand for human-to-human interactions,” she explained. “It’s just like having handcrafted furniture and how that is seen as a premium choice today.”
At a time when firms are under pressure to improve efficiency, reduce costs and manage increasing operational complexity, AI is likely to become an increasingly important part of the advice landscape. The challenge now may be how quickly firms adapt to a future where technology increasingly handles the process, and humans deliver the value.
By Jenny Hunter, IFA Magazine’s Deputy Editor.
About Samantha Mcbride
Samantha McBride is the Founder of Ani Tech, which builds AI workforces for financial services. Sam brings nearly 20 years of experience spanning finance and technology, with roles in M&A at Nomura and Deutsche Bank, multi-asset class investing at Partners Capital, and as a Portfolio Manager at Elm Partners, a quantitative hedge fund specialising in asset allocation strategies. She studied at the London School of Economics and taught herself to code, bridging her deep industry expertise with the technology now reshaping it.
