Wealth managers need to get advisors more comfortable with AI-driven insights and next best actions and using those insights to be more effective. AI can transform the customer experience by helping advisors with cross-selling, automated lead generation, product and pricing recommendations, and delivering customized portfolios at the right time. It can also be used to help identify and predict which clients may be at risk of changing advisors and recommend preemptive measures to minimize attrition.
3. Adopting new technologies. We are starting to see advisors engage clients through new technologies such as augmented and virtual reality. Advisors can use visualization techniques of presenting immersive data experiences and uncover new insights to improve client satisfaction. In just the past year, wealth managers have progressed from isolated proof of concepts to rolling out AR and VR to large segments of their advisors. Eventually, we expect wealth managers to marry the use of AI for greater personalization with AR and VR to create the branch office of the future.
While these strategies won’t stop Big Tech from entering the wealth market, they can help minimize the share of wallet that it can readily capture from advisors. Yet the threat is real. The mass affluent segment, which is where we think Big Tech could more easily provide wealth advice and services, is expected to grow at the highest rate globally among all wealth segments by 2025. And, as the great intergenerational wealth transfer picks up steam—with nearly a third of assets expected to change advisors’ hands over the next 30 years—wealth managers need to be ready.
Scott Reddel is Accenture’s North America Wealth Management lead.