Many Canadian financial advisors have used generative AI tools in their working day since they first hit the market in late 2022. Early adopters by nature, most started using generative AI as a communications aid. They ask large language models to copy edit emails, draft initial communications, or to critique their work. From those simple uses, advisors have seen AI and its applications in their practices expand, folding it into almost every aspect of their work.
Because of their belief in AI and their experience using it to drive greater productivity, most have also crafted a critical eye for the latest AI-powered tool or platform. Advisors explain where they have seen AI drive value in their practices and where it hasn’t, and how that experience informs the tests they now put to other AI vendors. As the advisory business moves further and further into this area of technology, advisors can hone their critical eye for AI tools.
It sounds cliche, but AI allows advisors to scale their businesses. It literally does because they are scaling it from a relationship based perspective where their having close relationships. But it doesn’t matter how many relationships you tag on to the practice, the quality of the relationships stay there because advisors are able to scale it properly with the tools they have. Incorporating AI into their service has created a word of mouth referral system where they are building assets and the clients are growing organically.
AI uses
Beyond those communication cleanups advisors started with, advisors have added a host of AI automations into their daily work. Those include meeting booking links and calendar tools with AI overlays that allow them to schedule and plan more efficiently. It also includes a new means of powering investment research. It also includes assistance with translation services.
One portfolio manager, I know of, has access to a tool which applies an AI chatbot to Bloomberg. That allows him to ask plain-language questions which AI will interpret and answer pulling from Bloomberg’s wealth of investment information. This allows him, for example, to pull out the earnings of a small company from Q1 and Q2, using the AI tool to identify key differences and stated delivery on goals. That kind of research can be a powerful tool in their hands.
Marketing and communications remains a straightforward area of AI application as well. In addition to copy editing and translation, using AI to draft presentations, put together slide decks, and collate key messaging points can all result in time saved for direct client connection.
Where not to apply AI
As keen as most advisors are on using the new AI technology, even AI-powered communication requires a human touch. Take an example of clients who would always prefer a phone call. Flipping them a link to an automated calendar is not going to make them feel well served. Advisors need to know when to go old school to help their clients.
Advisors also need to be critical of AI outputs. Fact checking and clear sourcing are key to any AI-generated content, and challenging the AI model on anything it has generated can often catch those AI errors. While AI can often tell users that their ideas, questions, and perspectives are all great, the models can be trained to give clearer and more critical responses to their users. AI can be trained to be less sycophantic, making it more effective. Sometimes AI output can appear impressive, but it doesn’t clarify. Every communication that he uses AI to edit or draft, must then be tested under the simple question of whether it makes things more or less clear for the client. AI generated content can seem impressive, but clarity should always be the goal.
The bottom line
Advisors, using AI, should apply the same tests to AI tools. For operational AI tools, decisions tend to happen at a dealer level. Those decisions though, should be made with a view to how any AI tool integrates with the other tools on the advisor or dealer’s shelf. Many AI vendors will focus on marketing solutions for advisors and when advisors deal with those vendors, they should avoid AI lead generation tools.
As much as advisors may use AI in their communication, they shouldn’t trust those marketing platforms to make a positive first impression. They give the impression that their practice may be impersonal. They want it to be anything but. As much as AI is benefitting their, authenticity should remain core to every advisor’s approach. They need to be authentic and real. AI should only be used as an enhancement, and not as a replacement, in their practice Keeping Life Current.
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