Last week I published a report on a topic that has interested me for some time: the application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology to the wealth management business. To date, neither Celent nor its industry peers have written much about this topic, despite clear benefits related to advisor learning and discovery. This lack of commentary, and the industry skepticism that underlines it, reflects successive waves of disappointment around AI, and more recently, competition for research bandwidth from other areas of digital disruption, such as robo advice.

Another inhibition relates to taking on an industry shibboleth. How to reconcile AI or machine intelligence to the hands on, high touch nature of traditional wealth management? This challenge is real but overstated, even when one reaches the $1 million asset level that has defined the high net worth investor. Indeed, the extent to which wealth management is a technology laggard (in general, but also when compared to other financial services verticals) highlights the opportunity for disruption.

In particular, AI offers a means to circumvent the dead weight of restrictions presented by antiquated trust platforms and other legacy tech, a weight which reinforces advisor dependence on spreadsheets and other negative behaviors. As is set out in the report, it is precisely the combination of new behaviors and technologies that can help surmount the finite capabilities of the human advisor.