Dynamic Planner, the UK’s leading AI-powered digital advice platform, has found that the number of advice professionals already using AI has risen significantly by 46% since 2025, with 2 in 5 (41%) now using it.
Most striking, is that the ‘do not plan to use’ group no longer exists and 1 in 7 (14%) are waiting for their existing technology provider to embed AI. Virtually the entire industry, 99% now say AI will be positive. While firms are positive, getting it right is still viewed as the biggest tech challenge by three in ten.
Larger firms are most likely to be using AI, while mid-sized firms are most likely to be in the investigation phase. Larger firms also see data, the foundation on which AI depends as more essential. Client numbers at larger firms have increased on 2025, potentially pointing to firms embracing the power of data, technology and AI.
There is a clear overall shift towards AI: the number of firms introducing AI as a future plan has fallen whilst the number actively using AI has increased, indicating it has moved from being a plan to already being something many are using.
| Metric | 2025 | 2026 | Shift |
| Actively using AI | 28% | 41% | +13 pts |
| No plans to use AI | 2% | 0% | Eliminated |
| Data seen as essential to decisions | 47% | 58% | +11 pts |
| #1 tech challenge | Data flow / integrations | AI adoption | New leader |
| Digital messaging in use | 50% | 67% | +17 pts |
| Email still used to service clients | 33% | 23% | −10 pts |
| Average clients served per adviser | 118 | 134 | +14% |
| “Introducing AI” cited as a future plan | 41% | 23% | −18 pts |
Data is seen as increasingly important, whilst 2025’s no 1 tech challenge – data flow and integrations has been replaced by AI adoption, perhaps indicating that firms have undertaken the hard work on data, and now see AI as the next priority to exploit value from that.
This year’s Advice 26 saw the emergence of a new way to service clients – via chatbot/AI agent. This is a crucial development which sees 1 in 10 already on board and set to grow significantly in adoption over the coming year.
“Last week the FCA called out agentic AI as one of the big scaling opportunities. And of all the findings from Advice 26, the one that is most profoundly interesting and indicative of this, is that 1 in 10 firms are already servicing clients via chatbot or AI agent. With AI growth showing itself to be exponential, firms wanting the ability to scale, and the manner in which the industry is now embracing it, 2026 will be the year of Agentic AI.*
“AI as a technology is moving on at such a pace, we would need a crystal ball to understand what we will ask of the industry on AI in Advice 27. The one thing for certain is that governance of AI will be top of the list. For the more autonomous the AI, the more the governance matters. Advice professionals viewed ‘getting it right’ as one of the biggest tech challenges when it comes to adopting AI, so do your homework, do your due diligence, get it right. Advice-grade AI has to be the goal.”
Rory McLaren, Chief Technology Officer, Dynamic Planner
Advice 26 is Dynamic Planner’s annual independent pulse of the industry. This year it has been undertaken with almost 700 advice professionals across the UK, consisting of 530 financial advisers, 67 business decision makers and 80 paraplanners, making it one of the largest pieces of research into the state of the industry.
Conducted online by Research Without Barriers in the first quarter of this year, Advice 2026 provides comprehensive insight on the health of financial advice firms and the industry as it is today.
