AI In The Advisor’s Workflow
The objective of any business endeavor is to make money. However, we all know that this journey varies from company to company, and smart business people look for ways to improve their standing. In the modern finance world, decision makers are hesitant to jump on new tech for fear of failing or losing money. Despite this, the AI revolution is coming in the form of machine-learning algorithms such as chatbots and smart data extrapolation, which can be used to analyze information and provide insights.
Before deciding to take a serious look at AI, Brian McLaughlin, CEO of Redtail, asked industry professionals and speakers at conferences what AI means to them. Their responses were underwhelming, so McLaughlin decided to take the bull by the horns and start with something simple—getting comfortable with the idea of analyzing data. Sixteen years ago, when Redtail was just released, industry leaders said that web-based tools would never be accepted, that everyone was scared of them. This turned out to be wrong.
“I think AI is going to be the same way. The same goes for real-time integrations and the potential use of blockchain. I think there’s a lot of opportunity there still.”
Text And Speech Conversations Can Aid Advisors
Advisors and their clients spend a lot of time communicating. Clients have questions about their accounts, how much they can spend, what the balance is, and so on. This communication data and conversation history are just sitting there. The Redtail team decided to come up with machine-learning algorithms to analyze this communication data. McLaughlin says they started with the email archives—roughly two billion messages.
The purpose of processing these messages was to identify important topics and key phrases. Are there any specific companies, organizations, or locations being mentioned? Once that is identified, the algorithm draws up a full picture of the conversation—in other words, what it is leaning toward and what the client’s intentions are.
For advisors this means not missing a beat and, importantly, not missing an opportunity. Advisors care about their clients and know in their hearts and minds what is important to every client. However, we are humans, and it is possible something can be missed. AI can quickly ascertain important discussion topics, create notifications and assist advisors in making decisions.
Use Case Scenarios
McLaughlin describes AI as a confidence-building tool, not something intrusive to privacy. Redtail’s AI tools have proven that, over a person’s life, their relationships, how their households change over time, their budgeting, and their planning also change. For example, the algorithm may come to the conclusion that there is a high chance a client wants to buy a house.