[The true value of an innovation, like artificial intelligence (AI), is found in its relevant applications. It is not just the technology that is important, but how you design and fashion the tech into an innovative solution. Solving serious problems and large-scale challenges are the overriding goals of tech innovators.
A recent 2/8/2024 press release, “TIFIN AMP’s Industry-First Integrated Data Fabric + Intelligence Cloud Platform Transforms Asset Management Distribution,” announced how AI technology is being applied to the structural, procedural, and scale challenges of Asset Management Distribution. Studies and surveys have shown that there has been a gap between asset managers and financial advisors stemming from the way asset managers have tended to inefficiently target and bombard advisors with marketing materials, emails, calls, and wholesalers. This is an area where AI can readily address industry inefficiencies.
To better understand how AI is addressing long-standing asset management distribution challenges, we reached out to Sal Gagliano, CEO; and Nikhil Nawathe, CPO, of TIFIN AMP — an asset manager AI platform which combines data science, AI/ML and visualization capabilities to drive more intelligent distribution. We asked them how they are applying AI technology to potentially change seemingly entrenched patterns of thought, behavior and strategy for this area of the financial services industry.]
Bill Hortz: I recently saw the press release announcing TIFIN AMP’s new Data Fabric and Intelligence Cloud. Can you tell us more about that?
Sal Gagliano: Asset Managers have been working for the better part of two decades to take a data-driven approach to distribution. They have invested in talented people and Business Intelligence tools to deliver the most targeted information possible to their wholesale teams. Today, there is more data available to them than ever to process, yet they still need to generate and deliver intelligence that is consumable and usable by wholesalers.
Our Data Fabric organizes and prepares data for use with the latest AI/ML technologies - just give us your data in whatever form and from whichever sources and we will do the rest. Our Intelligence Cloud leverages that data with our AI models to generate highly granular signals that we deliver to a wholesaler via our simple and elegant CRM integration tools.
Nikhil Nawathe: Our new Platform represents a significant advancement in TIFIN AMP’s technology. By leveraging AI and machine learning algorithms within our Data Fabric and Intelligence Cloud, we are able to deliver unparalleled insights that drive actionable results for our clients in the Asset Management industry. Our proprietary algorithms and partnerships with 3rd party ecosystems allow us to unify and enrich data sources, generating real-time, predictive insights to enhance client engagement and drive sales conversion rates.
Hortz: What challenges have Asset Management Distribution teams historically faced that your new technologies and enhanced AMP platform will solve?
Gagliano: Asset Management Distribution teams have long struggled to effectively integrate and enrich first- and third-party data. Despite having access to vast amounts of data, the difficulty lies in unifying and improving this data across diverse sources to drive distribution intelligence and engagement.
And, unless intelligence is delivered to asset management wholesalers in a consumable way, these efforts do not generate the intended ROI. Our Intelligence Cloud delivers concise, plain-English signals that guide the wholesaler on ways to engage an advisor client or prospect regarding the topics and products they are interested in. Our CRM integration provides wholesalers with the data they need at their fingertips when speaking with an advisor client.
Nawathe: The proliferation of data sources has been a challenge for decades. Our platform addresses this issue by providing a tailored solution that ingests, cleans, and enhances data to build a source-of-truth understanding of an advisor’s book of business, engagement preferences, and distribution nuances. Our algorithms sift through vast amounts of data, uncovering patterns and trends that human analysis alone could never achieve. It is about driving results and delivering value at every turn with the intelligence provided by our advanced AI capabilities.
Hortz: How does TIFIN AMP's solution stand out in the industry compared to others?
Gagliano: Today, many asset managers spend significant sums with their distribution partners on data packs. This data is typically limited to information about their products. We are partnering with wealth management firms to source the full set of distribution data across their advisor platforms to run them through our models and provide asset managers with a far more robust, granular set of intelligence in the form of signals. Wealth managers trust us with this data because they are highly focused on delivering more value to asset managers, and AMP’s distribution intelligence helps asset managers generate a much higher ROI on their data pack investments.
With the recent proliferation of AI tools, many firms are pressed to understand how to leverage these new applications of these technologies. Because we only focused on employing AI for distribution, we are experts at making AI accessible to asset managers at scale with greater speed, lower cost, and greater efficacy.
Lastly, AMP provides detailed, prescriptive, actionable signals straight to your CRM without disrupting existing workflows. Our integration creates a feedback loop with the asset manager that allows us to capture and flow the latest transaction, engagement, and third-party data through our models, allowing machine learning to improve our signals over time.
Nawathe: Additionally, our "Glass Box" approach demystifies machine learning techniques, providing transparency into the intelligence generated. We work with the asset manager to curate, personalize, and train algorithms specifically to help answer their distribution-related business questions. This helps salespeople understand the 'Why' behind the intelligence and its application in driving sales and improving retention.
Hortz: Most Asset Managers pay for data from different providers. Why should they also leverage AMP?
Gagliano: Data will always be a critical input, but as more of it becomes available, you need to employ a solution to analyze and draw actionable conclusions quickly and at scale. We significantly increase the ROI of these necessary data investments.
Nawathe: AMP algorithms assign existing and new advisor prospects a score to capture the likelihood of a sale, redemption, or a pre-sale engagement. The AI models can help unlock each prospect’s “What” “When” and “How” to fine-tune advisor engagement and sales strategy. Therefore, we are helping the wholesaler start a conversation with the advisor at a much more relevant place, eliminating the guesswork around an advisor’s needs.
At TIFIN AMP, we are continuously focused on ensuring that our solutions meet the evolving needs of Asset Management Distribution. Our platform is already live and deployed across a number of asset management clients.
The Institute for Innovation Development is an educational and business development catalyst for growth-oriented financial advisors and financial services firms determined to lead their businesses in an operating environment of accelerating business and cultural change. We operate as a business innovation platform and educational resource with FinTech and financial services firm members to openly share their unique perspectives and activities. The goal is to build awareness and stimulate open thought leadership discussions on new or evolving industry approaches and thinking to facilitate next-generation growth, differentiation and unique client/community engagement strategies. The institute was launched with the support and foresight of our founding sponsors — Ultimus Fund Solutions, NASDAQ, FLX Networks, TIFIN, Advisorpedia, Pershing, Fidelity, Voya Financial and Charter Financial Publishing.