In this article, Stuart Breyer, CEO of mallowstreet explores how AI can help flip the balance, easing the burden of admin and compliance, while putting human connection back at the heart of advice. From streamlining meeting follow-ups to enhancing client understanding, he explains how technology like SOFI is helping advisers build better relationships and deliver better outcomes.
Clear Advice: How AI is Transforming the Adviser-Client Relationship
Every financial adviser I speak with broadly tells me the same thing: ‘I joined this industry to work with my clients to help them make better decisions – to have a meaningful, positive impact on their lives.’ In the next few minutes of the conversation, I usually hear how regulatory requirements, paperwork, and documentation are becoming so onerous it is difficult to spend as much time with clients as they would like.
The other unintended consequence of this change is the unit cost of servicing or acquiring a client is rising, and therefore those people that want and need advice are finding it increasingly difficult to access advice.
The human cost of advice
So, how can Artificial Intelligence (AI) be used to help with these increasing requirements and costs of servicing a client – allowing millions more individuals the opportunity to access financial advice? And – how AI can allow financial advisers to spend more time with clients, actively listening to their concerns and requirements?
This matters because an adviser knows not only the questions to ask their clients, but given the nuances and complexities of a conversation, identify the follow-up questions to understand what is ultimately driving a client’s thinking or frame of reference. Allowing the time and space for a conversation to unfold allows the adviser to give the best possible recommendation for a client, driving a better outcome given the tailored advice that is delivered.
AI as an enabler
When an adviser or wealth management firm is considering deploying an AI solution, it is important to be very clear about the ‘use case’, that is, the exact problem they are looking to have an AI solution, or AI agent, solve. The clearer one can be at identifying the use case the more likely it is one will find the AI agent that does exactly what is needed.
We built SOFI to empower financial advisers to actively listen to their clients, putting the relationship between the adviser and the client back at the centre of the conversation. If an adviser knows they have an AI agent working in the background to ensure that all action points are captured and will be noted for the follow up, the AI agent can empower the adviser to actively listen.
In addition to actively listening in the meeting, an adviser can pay attention to the non-verbal cues from a client – the body language – which sometimes convey more honest meaning than words spoken or the tone in which they are delivered.
Letting advisers be advisers again
The powerful thing about AI is that it can be trained to deliver consistent output and follow-up from every meeting and every conversation, allowing advisers to not only spend more time with clients, but meet new clients.
With an AI agent by an adviser’s side, there is no more second-guessing what a client said or trying to decipher what something means in your notebook late at night, long after the short-term memory of the conversation has faded in the adviser’s brain. An AI agent allows an adviser to not only have clarity, but confidence in knowing what was said, what follow-up was agreed, and therefore be in possession of a clear set of next steps. This results in better client follow-ups, reduced regulatory risk for the adviser and their respective wealth management firms, and stronger client relationships.
Why this matters now
When implementing an AI solution, it is very important to shape the AI around the adviser. When you try and do it the other way around, the implementation and adoption of the tool usually always fails.
Now that SOFI is analysing hundreds of client meetings every day, we are seeing financial advisers achieve significant and meaningful time savings and efficiencies across their businesses. Not only is the unit cost of servicing a client falling, but advisers are able to focus on doing the thing they joined the industry to do – spend time with clients helping them make better decisions. All while their support teams can handle a bigger set of clients without requiring additional human resources.
Redefining the adviser-client relationship
AI is here and is becoming ingrained in our personal and professional lives. Rather than being an outlier, AI is quickly becoming an expectation from clients. Allowing an AI agent into a meeting not only allows everyone to actively listen but also serves to protect the client as it ensures a clear and transparent document is produced from the conversation in the meeting.
We all know what it feels like to walk out of a ‘great’ meeting. Putting this into words is difficult, but it is the feeling resulting from the unique combination of being listened to, heard, understood, with clearly agreed action points agreed that outline a clear step forward in a journey with a trusted party.
Using AI to create more ‘great’ meetings will be a step change for our industry – empowering financial advisers to spend more time with clients who will receive better advice and have better outcomes in their lives. Sounds like the reason we all joined this industry in the first place. When it comes to AI, my advice is the same. Approach AI with an open mind and experiment to find the tool that works for you – I think you will be amazed at the results.
About Stuart Breyer
Having graduated from Drexel University with an MBA, followed by several years at Susquehanna International Group in Philadelphia, Stuart moved to the UK to complete an Msc in Social Planning and Policy at the LSE in 2006.
For the past seven years Stuart Breyer has been the CEO of mallowstreet, the online a social network and educational events portfolio for professionals in the UK institutional pensions community.
mallowstreet has nearly £2 trillion Pension Scheme assets represented by 700 Pensions Funds and the community’s membership looks after the retirement saving of about 19 million people in the UK.
