Artificial intelligence is the hottest conversation of the day, and rightfully so. Like it or not, AI is going to revolutionize every industry, including financial services. Most countries are going to race to have an edge and figure out how to best use AI. Companies will too. If an advisor ignores what is taking place, there are going to be many missed opportunities to improve their success in the not-so-distant future.
It is easy to see how investment management will improve. Financial planning advice will be better than ever. Speed and productivity will greatly improve. Compliance will be tighter. AI will help not only improve these areas, but it will improve client service and business development too. Here are three areas to look at where AI will help advisors’ businesses:
Relationship Building
For years, it was thought that the human relationship is the one area where robo-advisors will have a hard time replacing human advisors. For obvious reasons that makes a lot of sense. However, if the ‘human’ interaction is segmented and dissected, there are things that AI will support or even do better than humans can. Personalization, communication and empathy will all be enhanced.
Imagine: All the client data gathered in one place. Not just banking, taxes, estate plans, financial plans and investments, but everything. For example, by knowing social media activity, credit card spending and more, AI will give a more complete picture. Then, it will allow for way more proactive communications. The outreach will be unique to the client and the speed will be unprecedented. Blast communications to the entire client base will become a thing of the past. Personalization on a mass scale will take place and it will be able to happen in real time.
Predictive And Timely Influence
If given the right information, AI will allow advisors to give advice when needed, even if this raises controversial issues. Time and again, advisors are not the first to know what clients are thinking and doing. Sometimes client decisions are made that could have been influenced by an advisor, but the advice is too late.
Imagine: A client that has no financial discipline and over spends all the time. Based on past purchase history, social media activity and online searches, along with other factors, AI can warn the advisor what is likely to take place next. Then the advisor can be there to help with the client before it is too late. Advisors will see client patterns and behaviors that they never have seen before.
Increased Revenue Success
Generative AI is already helping with content creation for website pages, newsletters, social media posts, mailers, advertisements and so much more. AI will help source prospects, communicate with them, guide them along the sales process and close them, converting them to clients. It will even help onboard them better. It will then improve sourcing referrals from these new clients. Plus, new operational effectiveness for humans will free up more time for increased sales activities.
Imagine: Artificial intelligence searching for triggers and patterns that fit an advisor’s target market. Maybe AI sees the use of hospice care or a funeral home to source widows. Or it finds new-home buyers of the most expensive houses in the wealthiest neighborhoods. There are so many target markets and so many triggers that cause people to need advice.
Once AI finds these families or individuals, it will send marketing communications, much more personalized than most of the industry does now. It will make scheduling the meetings a piece of cake. All the human relationship improvements for clients (noted above) will also take place for prospects. AI will greatly increase closing ratios. Then it will make new client onboarding and advice much better than it is possible right now.
These three areas are likely ways AI will help in this decade. Once these systems are ‘deep learning,’ who knows what will be next. It will be part exciting, part scary. One thing is for sure, soon the way advisors do business will look a lot different.
[Note: As a writer, it is important for me to state… These thoughts and insights are my own, not written by AI.]
Mike Byrnes is a national speaker and owner of Byrnes Consulting, LLC. His firm provides consulting services to help advisors become even more successful. Need help with business planning, marketing strategy, business development, client service and management effectiveness? Read more at ByrnesConsulting.com and follow @ByrnesConsultin.