AI adoption 5 times higher in 2024 among advice firms

Netwealth’s 2024 AdviceTech: Buyer’s Guide has revealed that half (50 per cent) of advice firms are currently using AI, while an additional third (32 per cent) are considering use, totalling more than eight in 10 (82 per cent) of the 300 firms surveyed.

This marks a significant uptick over last year, with just 11 per cent reporting use and 34 per cent considering use in 2023, for a combined figure of 45 per cent.

The most common tool used by those who have already adopted AI technology is AI chatbots such as ChatGPT at around seven in 10 (69 per cent).

This is followed by Microsoft Copilot (54 per cent), which has seen a notable uptick in use, rising from 17 per cent last year to 54 per cent in 2024. Netwealth attributed this to Copilot’s ability to better integrate with the Microsoft 365 suite – a preferred tool among firms.

Firms have also begun embedding AI technologies into their existing tech stacks, including customer relationship management platforms (13 per cent) and investment/super platforms (8 per cent).

Additionally, the report found that AI was most commonly used to summarise client meetings (58 per cent), with almost twice as many firms reporting doing so compared to last year (30 per cent).

A significant number of firms also reported use in creating content such as articles or images (49 per cent) and in back-office process automation (35 per cent), followed by assistance in performing client reviews (31 per cent) and the creation of initial financial advice, including statement of advice (SOA) creation (26 per cent).

Among the top uses ran a common thread of increasing efficiency, a task that has become increasingly top of mind among advisers as they attempt to increase their client capacity and profitability using technology.

However, few firms are opting to utilise AI to help identify fraud and cyber breaches (8 per cent), and regulatory or compliance breaches (8 per cent), and even fewer are doing so for investment selection and portfolio construction (6 per cent) or to help choose appropriate client portfolios (3 per cent).

As the advice profession increases its use of AI, the ASIC released Report 798 Beware the gap: Governance arrangements in the face of AI innovation, warning financial services and credit licensees of the risk that their governance approach to the technology lags behind its adoption.

According to the report, nearly half of licensees did not have policies that considered consumer fairness or bias, and even fewer had policies governing the disclosure of AI use to consumers.