Are you a financial adviser looking to improve efficiency and enhance client relationships? If so, you’re probably wondering how artificial intelligence (AI) can help.
The good news is we spoke to our clients who are financial advisers and they told us there’s scope for harnessing the power of AI in their work. But that potential comes with warnings, especially in a profession built on trust, regulation and human judgement.
The burden of paperwork
Our financial adviser clients tell us that one of the biggest challenges they face is the sheer volume of paperwork.
Over the last two decades, the regulatory burden on financial advisers has increased enormously and with that regulation comes an increase in paperwork, most of it routine and consistent client to client.
Financial advisers are swamped by client agreements, suitability reports, key investor information documents and much more.
This is where our clients told us AI offers the best opportunities for improving efficiency. But how should it be deployed safely?
Don’t replace humans, do streamline the admin
AI can support financial advisers, but it can’t replace their professional judgement which is vital for maintaining client relationships.
Financial advisers who want to use AI to reduce the burden of paperwork can use it to:
- Summarise client data and financial histories
- Draft meeting notes and summaries
- Prepare client communications, reports and draft recommendations for review
- Help manage the process of creating annual reviews for clients
Don’t use it to automate financial advice without human oversight or make final suitability or risk decisions.
Improve reporting and insights
AI excels in analysing large quantities of information quickly.
Providing you’re careful about what you’re inputting into your AI tool, it can help generate regular reports and insights about pensions and investments for your clients.
But remember, your outputs will only be as good as the data you put in and small errors when you share information with your AI tool will result in much larger errors in the reports you generate.
Don’t be put off though. So long as you maintain human oversight, you can mitigate the risks and make AI work for you.
Enhance your client communications
Communicating with your clients in a timely way is critical to maintaining a good relationship, but so is tone, accuracy and your personality.
AI can be safely used to help you draft emails and newsletters, simplify complex financial concepts, create educational content and prepare responses to common questions.
However, don’t rely completely on your AI-generated messages. Clients need to hear a human touch in all your communications so don’t forget to personalise your messaging ensuring it suits the circumstances and sounds like you.
Don’t miss out on the benefits but proceed with caution
AI brings huge opportunities for financial advisers and many of you will already be using it, but the most successful advisers won’t use AI to automate everything.
Like all technological developments, it needs to be used thoughtfully in support of your human expertise.
For more advice about using AI responsibly, and getting the insurance cover you need, talk to our friendly experts.
