As the Financial Conduct Authority’s Consumer Duty raises expectations for fairness, consistency and documentation, advisers face growing pressure to balance compliance with genuine client connection. Stuart Breyer, CEO of mallowstreet, explores how artificial intelligence can help IFAs meet these obligations without losing the empathy and human touch that define great advice, and how mallowstreet’s SOFI platform helps make advice both compliant and deeply human.
When the Financial Conduct Authority introduced Consumer Duty, it aimed to raise standards across the advice profession. The intention was to ensure that every client outcome is fair, consistent and well-documented. For advisers, this wasn’t just another compliance hurdle. It was a cultural reset; a reminder that great advice is as much about empathy and understanding as it is about accuracy and process.
But as expectations rise, so too does the pressure. Advisers today are navigating shrinking margins, growing client books, and an ever-expanding list of administrative demands. Manual notetaking, fragmented workflows and the need for consistent documentation can easily consume hours each week. Time that could instead be spent listening, thinking and connecting.
The irony of Consumer Duty is that in trying to put the consumer at the heart of advice, it risks making it more formulaic, increasing the paperwork and supporting documentation required, all while making the actual advice received less personalised. This is where technology, used with intention, can make all the difference.
From Automation to Autonomy
For years, much of the conversation about AI in financial services has focused on automation – doing more, faster. But the real opportunity lies in autonomy; giving advisers the power to shape how technology supports, rather than replaces, their expertise.
At mallowstreet, we built SOFI with this principle in mind. Designed specifically for meaningful productivity gains and to enhance relationships, SOFI uses AI to capture, analyse and summarise client meetings automatically, turning spoken conversations into structured, FCA-aligned documentation within minutes.
We recently launched SOFI Self-Service, a major new function that allows firms to configure and run AI-powered meeting capture, compliance and reporting workflows independently. It gives advice businesses complete flexibility to tailor templates, reporting standards and compliance logic to their own systems, while maintaining consistency and audit-readiness at scale.
It’s not about outsourcing the human touch; it’s about freeing it to once again be put at the service of clients.
When administrative load falls, advisers can focus on being fully present again, focusing on tone, trust and the subtleties that build lasting relationships. And firms gain a consistent, compliant audit trail, advisers regain their time and confidence. Everyone wins.
Consumer Duty in Practice
The heart of Consumer Duty lies in four words: act in good faith. That means evidence, consistency and empathy – qualities that AI, when applied thoughtfully, can help scale.
Every adviser knows the mental load that comes with balancing client needs and regulatory expectations. SOFI helps relieve that burden by standardising documentation while keeping the adviser’s language and intent intact. Meeting notes, action points and suitability summaries are automatically generated, quality-checked and stored securely, creating an instant record of the conversation, ready for audit.
The result is less time spent typing, and more time for listening. Advisers can focus on what the client says, and how they say it.
It’s a subtle but powerful shift: technology doing the heavy lifting so humans can do the higher thinking.
The Human Dividend
Every piece of technology carries a trade-off. The wrong tools create friction; the right ones create flow. When we designed SOFI, we wanted to solve not just an efficiency problem, but an energy problem.
Our data shows that the SOFI platform now analyses over 10,000 adviser meetings per month, with usage growing 20% month on month. The common feedback? “I can finally breathe again.”
When advisers feel less rushed, they listen better, think more clearly, and serve more compassionately. That’s the human dividend, the return on time, focus and wellbeing that comes when technology restores headspace.
In an industry that depends on human trust, this dividend compound in a truly positive way. Clients can sense when their adviser is truly present – not distracted by screens or forms. By reducing cognitive load, AI doesn’t just improve efficiency, it strengthens connection.
What’s Next: Compliance Meets Compassion
As AI becomes more embedded in financial advice, the question isn’t whether it will change the industry, but how. The firms that succeed will be those that see technology not as an expense, but as a culture shift.
AI will increasingly act as a second set of eyes and ears, flagging inconsistencies, prompting follow-ups, and helping advisers’ effortlessly evidence good outcomes. It will enable firms to scale quality, not just quantity, and to meet Consumer Duty obligations with greater confidence.
SOFI’s new Self-Service capability takes this even further, empowering firms to roll out AI-enabled compliance and documentation at their own pace, using their own configurations. For larger networks, it means scalable control and consistency. For smaller practices, it means immediate access to enterprise-level support without complexity or cost.
But the real potential goes beyond compliance.
By giving advisers their time back, AI makes space for what can’t be automated, empathy, intuition and trust. The future of advice is human, but it will be powered by technology that understands and amplifies what makes us human in the first place.
As one adviser recently told us, “SOFI gives me my evenings back.” That’s not just a productivity gain; it’s a wellbeing one.
When technology supports the adviser rather than replacing them, everyone benefits, firms become more efficient, clients feel more cared for, and the profession becomes more sustainable.
A More Human Future
Consumer Duty asks the industry to prove that clients are receiving good outcomes. AI can help prove that, but it can also help create it.
The next evolution of advice won’t be about replacing people with machines but partnering the two more intelligently. The advisers who embrace this now will not only meet the Duty; they’ll also redefine it.
Because when we use AI to make advice more human, we don’t just comply with the letter of the regulation, we live up to its spirit.
