As advice firms look to boost efficiency and client engagement, many are discovering that the smartest outsourcing decision isn’t to a third party, it’s to technology itself. Writing for IFA Magazine, Richard Wake, Chief Operating Officer at intelliflo, shares the firm’s latest research revealing how advice firms are harnessing digital tools and AI to streamline operations, deepen relationships and redefine productivity in 2025.
In our latest marketwide advice efficiency survey, we asked 238 firms about their business operations and found a strong desire to increase productivity by adopting digital and AI tools. Many advisers wanted to be freed from time-sapping routine admin tasks to focus on building deeper, more rewarding relationships with their clients.
From onboarding and account admin to data capture and client servicing, digitisation is enabling advisers to reclaim time and focus instead on delivering value. AI-based services are now flourishing to reduce friction in processes even further. Outsourcing in this way, not to third parties but to technology, is fast becoming a business necessity across the sector in 2025.
How firms are working today
To understand how advisers are adapting in practice, our research explored what day-to-day client engagement and operations currently look like.
Our research revealed that the majority of firms (92%) are using a hybrid approach to client engagement, combining online and face-to-face meetings depending on what works best for each client. Two-fifths (41%) say they are operating with an even split between the two.
Nearly all respondents (96%) feel they could improve their advice journeys, pointing to frustrations with internal inefficiency, time-consuming processes, and fragmented systems as areas to improve.
These pressures are feeding directly into demand for technology. The percentage of processes now digitised has risen by 10% on last year’s survey, to 43%. But there’s a clear appetite for more: firms say they want to increase this to 77%, giving a strong indication that advisers would rather spend their time in front of clients, where the value of advice really shines, than on admin.
When it comes to AI, we found that 43% are already using it for personalisation, automation, data analysis and compliance. And interest is only set to grow. As more providers emerge targeting the specific needs of the advice sector, 64% of firms told us they want to see more AI helping with report writing, meeting transcription, fact-finding and, crucially, better integration.
Support from technology
To see where technology could make the biggest difference, we asked firms to name their top priorities for digital adoption. Three themes stood out:
- Over three-fifths put better integration top, up from 58% last year. Switching between systems, rekeying errors, and compliance issues continue to be cited as major headaches, evidenced by 17% of client onboarding processes suffering from errors when rekeying data between unconnected systems.
- In line with last year, 54% stated that enhanced fact-finding, with richer, cleaner data, gathered with the support of technology, was crucial. That way, client meetings can become real conversations, rather than information-harvesting exercises.
- Just over half want facilitated note-taking and recording, capturing key insights in real time to help them focus on the client and free them from post-meeting admin. Although it ranked as firms’ third biggest priority for digital adoption, demand for this actually declined from 57% last year, suggesting that AI transcription tools may already be lightening the load.
We also found that aspirations aren’t always matching reality when it comes to technology. One in five firms want to eliminate all manual or paper-based processes, but only 1% have managed it so far. This gap is a clear sign that while frustrations remain, digitisation – supported by the right infrastructure and training – could be the solution advisers are looking for.
Underpinning advice, not superseding it
All in all, the benefits of outsourcing to technology are clear. But it’s important to stress that AI and digitisation aren’t replacing advisers. They’re here to support you by removing friction, reducing risk, and cutting out human errors that creep in with repetitive manual work.
More importantly, the growing use of technology should liberate advisers, paraplanners and support staff from basic tasks that automated tools can complete efficiently, so you can spend more time where it really counts: with clients.
