4 ways to incorporate AI into your advisory practice

By Ciano B. Villaquiran

Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to be a hot topic in the workplace. 77% of companies are either using or exploring the use of AI in their businesses. Is AI an ally or a silent disruptor threatening to rewrite our role as a financial advisor?

Rather than viewing AI as a threat, financial advisors should see it as a powerful tool that can enhance capabilities and free up time for more strategic, creative, and client-focused tasks.

Below are a few ways to incorporate AI into your professional practice and make the most of what this technology has to offer.

1. Research Assistance

As a trusted resource for our clients, we tend to get questions covering a wide variety of topics. Whether its taxes, estate planning, specific rules for certain states, etc. our role is to help our clients navigate through the information and make sound decisions.

AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT, CoPilot, and Google Gemini are great tools to help gather information, summarize documents, and help provide you with the information your clients are looking for. Instead of researching a ton of web pages, let these AI-powered engines help sift through the information and provide the answers you are looking for.

When using these tools, ensure that you try to provide as much context as possible and always check the sources. These AI tools are scanning millions of data points, and you want to ensure the information is accurate and not misleading.

2. Elevated Client Meetings

AI is continuing to transform the way advisors hold client meetings. In the past, advisors would be meticulously taking notes and at the same time trying to stay engaged with a client while they are sharing their most important concerns to you. AI powered note taking tools have changed the way advisors should conduct these meetings.

Tools such as ZOOM AI Companion, Zocks, Jump AI have rolled out transcription services that can provide a full summary of your meeting, highlight key points, and integrate with your CRM. It simply requires an audio transcription to unlock these tools.

By focusing less on writing notes, it ensures you are fully engaged with your client during these meetings and provides a seamless way to delegate tasks, send follow up emails to your clients, and update client information in your CRM.

3. Enhance your Marketing Efforts

Marketing tends to be at the bottom of the list for most firms but with AI powered tools, there is no shortage of ways to help increase your overall efforts. Whether it’s drafting up an email to a group of your top clients or building out a checklist for a client event, or designing content, AI can help build these out for you in a fraction of the time it used to take.

Platforms like Canva, Intuit Mailchimp, Adobe all have AI-integrated tools to help create flawless content to help improve your marketing efforts.

4. Build a More Valuable Firm

Many financial advisors have built successful practices but lack key documentation around their policies and procedures. AI can change that. Leveraging AI-powered tools such as CoPilot or ChatGPT can help produce the necessary documentation such as job descriptions, firm procedures, and a written-out client service model.

Having these documents on file not only ensures a consistent client experience but also provides new hires and/or succession partners with a reliable roadmap and ensures a smooth onboarding as they step in to your practice.

In summary, AI is not here to replace us, it’s here to support our practices. By integrating AI tools into your practice, you can improve your efficiency, improve your client experience, and increase the value of your practice.

The key is to be open to change and be willing to adapt. Whether you’re a solo practitioner or part of a large firm, now is a great time to explore AI and bring your practice into the new age.

Ciano has been in the financial services industry since 2012 and is a partner in a boutique planning practice, CURO Financial Planning and Insurance Solutions, based in San Diego.