Some financial advisors don’t want to build an empire. That includes Russ Thornton, who currently advises 40 clients and envisions 70 clients max at his Atlanta-based advisory practice.

“My goal is to develop a clientele that suits me personally so that I actually enjoy working with my clients in a way that also gives me time away from the office,” Thornton says.

With roughly $45 million in assets under management, Thornton is using technology to build a “lifestyle” advisory practice that allows him to act as a relationship manager to his current clients and to spend time looking for new clients that are a perfect fit.

“I am creating a good, profitable business that supports my family but doesn’t require me to be chained to a desk in an office 60 hours a week,” Thornton says.

He is one of a growing number of advisors using “augmented intelligence.” An August 2016 article in Information Week explains that the term refers to technology that enhances human capabilities rather than substituting for them. “IBM says it sees AI helping doctors make sense of medical data and patient information; helping citizens get answers about insurance, taxes and social programs; helping students and educators learn and teach more effectively; helping financial firms make better decisions about risk and fraud; and helping solve public safety, environmental and infrastructure challenges,” says the article.

Paolo Sironi, fintech thought leader with IBM Watson Financial Services, says that AI, in short, makes it easier for advisors to help clients understand the advantages and disadvantages of the financial decisions they face.

Thornton uses a platform from Wealthcare Capital Management called Goals Driven Investing (GDI) for AI. The platform offers automated planning, goals management and investment tools. Thornton, who is an investment advisor representative with Wealthcare Capital and brands his practice as Wealthcare For Women, uses the platform’s illustrations, charts and graphics to actively involve his clients in real time and interactive planning. In 90% of his client meetings, Thornton hooks up his laptop to a big screen television that’s connected to Wealthcare Capital software so that each page of a client’s financial plan is easily viewable.

Wealthcare’s platform “is helping me to build a planning-based rather than portfolio-based relationship with my clients where we update not only the plan but also their account balances based on the market, their contributions or withdrawals,” Thornton says. “We also talk about what’s currently important to them so that we can integrate it into the existing plan.”

Richmond, Va.-based Wealthcare Capital manages about $1.8 billion in advisory assets and serves 30,000 advisors nationwide. Ron Madey, Wealthcare’s president and chief investment officer, says the platform differs from a robo-advisor. “The initial entry point where there’s a discussion of life goals and collection of financial information is a human interaction process,” he says. “Even if it’s partly automated, it’s not algorithmic because the result is based on customized answers to questions the advisor develops and asks.”

As for GDI, it’s part of the growing trend of automation tools. “The whole process of front-to-back integration is automated,” Madey says. “What we need to do next is simplify it more. We are actually looking at how to gamify it.”