AI to impact all aspects of advice: Report

In his welcoming address to delegates of its UK Study Tour 2019, Netwealth joint managing director Matt Heine revealed some findings from its most recent AdviceTech Report, which he said would be released in two weeks.

On the technology front, 36 per cent of those surveyed said AI and machine learning will have the greatest impact on financial advice practices in the next five years.

Regtech was also cited as a major impact with 36 per cent of respondents, and was closely followed by robo advice at 34.8 per cent and scaled advice at 34.2 per cent.

Managed accounts (28.6 per cent) and big data (27.7 per cent) were also cited as likely to have a major impact on financial advice in the futures.

“Technology is going to improve every single part of your business. I don't think anyone can argue with that,” Mr Heine said.

“What was interesting for us though was the type of technologies that advisers are now thinking about. When we first did this report three years ago, AI was so far down the bottom of the list it wasn't funny. It wasn't in anyone's thinking.

“Whereas I think there's a very good recognition now that AI is going to be leading the charge in pretty much everything we do. Whether you know it or not, it will be sitting in the background and delivering value.”

Mr Heine noted the rising impact of regtech on advice, and remarked that robo-advice in the post-royal commission world has a place in the market, calling on delegates to provide feedback on what it should be doing for advisers in the robo-advice space.

Further, Mr Heine said it was also interesting that managed accounts are getting closer to reaching maturity.

“All the early adopters are well and now truly on the path to managed account implementation and hopefully are seeing the benefits,” he said.