Industry Leaders Unpack AI’s Role in Financial Services

These days, with companies like Nvidia powering equities to new heights and businesses of all kinds increasingly adopting machine learning-based tools to improve efficiencies, artificial intelligence has become almost impossible to ignore, especially in our industry. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it emerged as a dominant theme during OneVoice 2024 in Orlando.  

The event kicked off with an opening keynote address by Noelle Russell, an AI visionary who has experience leading teams at Amazon, Microsoft, IBM and now Accenture, where she serves as the firm’s Global AI Solutions Lead.

It then was bookended with an AI-centric CEO panel on the conference’s final day featuring Shannon Reid, President, ICD, Raymond James Financial Services; Adam Malamed, CEO, Sanctuary Wealth Group; and Mike Durbin, CEO, Cetera Holdings.

The panel, which was moderated by Amy Webber, the CEO of Cambridge Investment Research, initially focused on how to lead during periods of significant regulatory change. But then it quickly turned to AI, with the firm leaders providing their perspectives on how the technology could re-shape the industry and what our space could look like once the ongoing digital revolution has time to mature.

“We’re really focused on AI and how we equip our advisors to be more efficient, more effective and really do a better job serving their clients,” Reid said. “That includes everything from making it easier for them to generate reports to simplifying the process of evaluating campaigns.”

Raymond James recently launched what Reid calls an “opportunities” tool. It uses data from millions of clients to surface actionable ways for advisors to create more value. She was clear, however, that no one is obligated to use it.  

“We don’t force the advisor to do anything,” Reid said. “We just want to equip them with more tools that allow them to have better, more meaningful conversations with clients.”

Cetera is using AI as well, Durbin said. For example, they are deploying chatbots to help with repetitive operations.

“That’s truly a training-wheels application that helps to demystify AI and allow advisors to see the potential value,” Durbin said.

Durbin also discussed the potential for generative AI, which is focused on producing so-called novel content, including video and text. By contrast, predictive AI, what most in the industry are familiar with, leans on large data sets to anticipate outcomes. Chat bots, for instance, are a form of predictive AI.

“To me, generative AI is the next tech frontier. Like crypto and blockchain, it will have all kinds of foibles, for sure. But what it represents is a second big shift, where the innovation is in the consumer’s hands at the same exact time as the institutions.”

Meanwhile, Sanctuary’s Malamed was bullish on some uses of AI, citing studies that found that it greatly enhances productivity. Still, when it comes to decision-making, he is taking a wait-and-see approach. 

“Every service business is desperate to find ways to increase productivity,” Malamed said. “That includes us. We wake up every day trying to figure out how to service financial advisors in the most efficient way possible, so they, in turn, can provide better service to their clients.”

“Where I get concerned,” he continued, “is when something is going to make a decision for an advisor, or we’re going to be using it to make the recommendation.”

Malamed ended the conversation by referencing an all-too-real digital avatar Russell displayed during her keynote the previous day.

“Who knows when somebody’s going to make an avatar of a financial adviser giving advice,” Malamed pondered. “And I think, as we all know, the regulators are going to have something to say about it.”