When a piece of “cutting-edge” AI adviser tech starts obsessing over personal grooming and cat furballs, it’s time to ask: are we really the target audience? In her latest insightful blog for IFA Magazine, Katie Brinsden, Managing Director at Truly Independent, bravely enters the uncanny valley so you don’t have to.
I can honestly say this is not something I ever expected to write about, particularly for an adviser audience, but here goes… We need to talk about personal grooming.
Actually, this is not strictly true. It would be more accurate to say that artificial intelligence (AI) thinks we need to talk about personal grooming.
Confused? So were my colleagues and I when we were recently treated to a demonstration of software purportedly designed to record and filter adviser-client discussions.
It was billed as a classic example of what we all want from cutting-edge technology – a means of letting AI do some of the “heavy lifting” that has sapped advisers’ precious time and energy for so long. Very simply put: the package would translate a conversation into a transcript and then generate a summary for good measure.
This is where personal grooming unexpectedly entered the reckoning. It rather leapt out at us, as it were, while we perused the reams of text.
As we are all aware, adviser-client relationships tend to go beyond financial matters. Clients continue to value engagement that is inherently human. So a dialogue is very rarely – if ever – confined to asset allocation, portfolio construction and the like.
Some of the time will instead be taken up by what might best be described as chitchat. How did the holiday go? Are the kids enjoying university? Is the cat feeling any better? Can you believe how expensive make-up is nowadays? We all know the drill.
This is genuinely important stuff, as it underlines that advisers are not just disinterested cyphers who swing by to crunch numbers once or twice a year. It is in many ways the essence of how we help make a positive difference to people’s lives. It shows we care.
But do we really need an exhaustive electronic facsimile of it? Do we really need an ever-lasting record of how sunny it was in Florida, who got a first in sociology and the state of play in Tiddles’ fight against furballs? More significantly, does anyone else?
It occurred to us as the demonstration wore on that this software was very likely not designed expressly for advisers’ use. It also occurred to us that there could be serious concerns around the data at its heart.
For instance, who would have access to all these transcripts and summaries? Could their security be guaranteed? Might it be possible that personal details could be shared or even sold on?
Moreover, what if the regulator were to seize on the notion of every word of every face-to-face meeting ever conducted being electronically preserved for posterity? And what if another AI system were tasked with scouring said mountain of material for potential omissions, oversights and so on?
This is not to imply that advisers – less still their clients – have anything to hide. But it is alarmingly easy to see how an innovation allegedly intended to reduce bureaucratic and administrative burdens could instead end up adding to them and perhaps even cause a few additional difficulties further down the line.
Where might it all lead? What if the prospect of data breaches or regulatory interference were eventually to render advisers unwilling to discuss anything other than purely financial considerations?
Would clients feel so valued, so willing to give their trust, if their advisers were merely to turn up, ask a set of questions about investments and then leave? It would conceivably mark the death of relationships – and, as a result, the end of our industry.
This is an extreme extrapolation of course. Yet the fact remains that some of the tech now being made available to advisers could bring unintended consequences.
Remarkably, we have now sat through several demonstrations of products that have given rise to much the same concerns. All have been bolt-ons. It is hard to believe they were originally created with advisers in mind.
The good news is that we have also been shown a package that seems to strike a sensible balance between an adviser’s proven strengths and AI’s astonishing capabilities, thereby encouraging a “best of both worlds” approach. So all is not lost.
Nonetheless, it is already clear that in embracing tech – which is undoubtedly the way forward for the adviser community – we have to tread carefully. As in any sphere, appearances can be deceptive. There are products whose instant appeal could conceal the risk of long-term problems.
It is rather like reaching investment decisions. We need to take our time, do our research, give due thought to all the options and strive to make fully informed choices. We owe that much both to ourselves and, just as importantly, to our clients.
Katie Brinsden is Managing Director of Truly Independent.
