A New Way Of Visualizing Data
Advisors have access to tons of client data. With the help of customer relationship management (CRM) systems, advisors can now effectively utilize that information to get the most out of their technology and offer better advice. A handful of companies are now taking this data discovery to the next level with atificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms. Technological advancements like these don’t typically offer much in terms of visuals, and Machine Learning and AI are buzzwords that don’t really mean much to the average financial advisor.
However, Robert Kirk, founder and CEO of InterGen Data Inc. informs me that the reasoning behind their robo advisor widget Digital Advice Via Demographics, or DAViD for short, is to visually and contextually show advisors the most relevant information about their clients’ upcoming financial journey.
“What matters to me, and the reason I created DAViD, is to show people the relevance and elegance of AI-based machine learning. Until now, its been really tough to show people what matters. Most people would ask, What are you going to show me? Data being juxtaposed and compared in Excel? That’s just not exciting and no one really cares.”
The visualized output also has to be easy to understand and beg the user to interact with it. DAViD offers a cash-flow forecast that shows year-by-year expenses as an overlay to their income showing “Disposable Income.” Therefore, more green in the cash-flow statement is good and less green is bad. The beauty of machine learning is that this data can be displayed and/or used by advisors however they see fit. For example, advisors can create custom cash-flow statements in real time with their clients, have them as base personas/profiles to start a conversation, or let their clients access it for themselves via smart speakers (Alexa, Google, Cortana, Siri).
The AI solution Kirk and his team created finds correlations among millions of people and “learns” when advisors confirm DAViD’s suspicion. Once an advisor sees a layout of all the financial plans and the possible red flags for particular clients, they can call for a meeting, discuss the best ways to overcome unforeseen expenses, like medical bills, or even market to their customers.
Automated Intelligent Marketing
Neural storytelling may sound like a strange medical condition, but it’s actually machine learning and AI applied to content creation. How does this work? Deep learning algorithms identify what content is the most popular, find correlations, and create new content that gets more clicks and views than human-generated content. Kirk says use cases already exist for things like lead-scoring and dynamic pricing.
No matter where machine learning is applied, the kick-starter is impetus (a life event). If advisors can market something before that life event, there’s a better chance of either getting a new client or helping an existing client.
“A good example of impetus to action is the following: When do you buy insurance? When it’s on sale? No. No one buys insurance on sale. You buy insurance because you either bought something, you broke something, or you created something. Those are life events!”