Two years ago, the conversation was "could this be an AI thing?" Now firms are coming to us with specific challenges and a clear sense of the value they want AI to deliver.
Gareth Anderson, Strategy Principal at CreateFuture, has watched that shift happen in real time. In this Q&A he talks through where AI is adding value across the advice journey, what's still getting in the way, and how to build something that makes an impact rather than becoming a “shiny bolt-on”.
What’s the mood like inside wealth and investment firms now when it comes to AI?
I think the mood’s definitely shifted. We’re moving from hype to heavy lifting, we’re clearly past the novelty phase.
As in-house understanding and confidence rise, so have the number of use cases and the desire to explore. Across lots of businesses, we’re seeing the same conversational shift. Things are moving from discussions around “could this be an AI thing?” to “this could be an interesting area to explore with AI”, right through to where we’re at now, which is people coming to us with very specific, “I know AI can deliver this type of value and I’d like to know how it can deliver it for us.”
And I think as an industry we’re starting to see the art of the possible being explored more deeply, especially from an operational IT perspective.
So we’ve moved from “AI is cool” to “AI is how we get things done”?
If I think back to sitting in rooms with clients or providers two, two and a half years ago, we were having those conversations like “this could be an AI thing” or “let’s throw AI at that.” It was exciting, everyone kind of knew what it was, but not quite, and there was this inkling it could deliver value.
Now we’re in a space where people are starting to show that value, they’re proving it out in real use cases. And now clients, providers, teams, everyone’s a lot clearer on “right, we can do this, and it will really add value going forward.”
When it comes to financial advice, what’s getting in the way of bringing AI projects to life?
If we get the obvious external stuff out of the way, we’re talking about a really heavily regulated industry. Yes, the FCA has been really transparent in its guidance, and there was another update in March, but firms and individuals with compliance responsibilities, they’re still going to be nervous. And that’s to be expected with any emergent technology.
But I think the real bottlenecks we’re seeing are more those processing and technical things. Internally, it’s things like legacy plumbing, tech stacks, data governance, lack of strategic clarity.
You can build the smartest AI agent in the world, but if it’s pulling from siloed, unstructured, outdated CRM data, and it doesn’t have a clear customer or colleague purpose, it’s not going to deliver what you’re looking for. Data hygiene, that’s the unglamorous roadblock that’s holding us back!
Across the advice journey, where does AI have the most to offer right now?
It feels like the heavy-hitting stuff is definitely behind the scenes. It’s compliance, it’s risk management, it’s backstage customer service, it’s IT operations. And that’s where a lot of financial services organisations are seeing significant savings and efficiencies.
There’s studies that show that (within the individual advisor workflow) nearly all wealth professionals using AI say it is most helpful in eliminating administrative tasks. Things like auto-generating meeting notes, prepping annual reviews, and flagging next best actions.
AI is becoming a hyper-efficient paraplanner, freeing up the advisor to actually speak to the client, do their job, the stuff they really care about.
Is AI improving the quality of advice a client gets yet?
I don’t think we’re quite there yet from that direct customer value exchange.
As I mentioned, the value really is behind the scenes right now. But I like that narrative around capacity creating quality. If an advisor spends four hours less on admin a week, that’s four hours they can spend focusing on understanding client goals, thinking about their ambitions, working with them on that.
So I think it is impacting the advice, it’s impacting the ability for advisors to give that advice and deliver a higher quality service. But the AI itself, in terms of direct to consumer, I don’t think we’re quite there yet.
I do think we’ll get there. AI is brilliant at identifying real-time shifts in data and it’s great at triggering actions. So in the advice space, that’s things like noticing a change in a client’s circumstances and being able to prompt personalised, proactive outreach in real time.
But everything else needs to catch up. Regulation, safety and trust from the customer. That’s going to be a really important shift.
Where are firms going wrong with AI right now?
It’s like anything with an emergent technology, I think the mistake is treating it like a shiny bolt-on rather than thinking strategically and embedding it into the core workflow.
If you just give an advisor a co-pilot window and expect magic to happen without purpose or strategy, that’s not going to get you what you want. You might see individuals pick it up and it changes their workflow, but from an institutional perspective it’s going to take a really long time to realise value.
If you want real value, you have to take that AI-native approach.
The firms that integrate the intelligence directly into the backend, making it almost invisible. Where advisors know they’re using it but they’re not really thinking about it, those are the ones that are going to win out. Rather than forcing people to log into separate tools for separate use cases.
What does AI native mean to you?
It’s about making AI an extension of yourself. It becomes second nature that you use it. It’s native to how you work.
It augments your workflow so you can focus on the parts where the human brain brings real value, and it takes away the more time-dependent, repetitive tasks.
The way I think about it is the human brain is the marker of taste going in, and the marker of quality at the end. AI supports everything in between.
With people turning to AI tools, TikTok and YouTube for financial guidance, how should traditional firms respond?
I think the model needs to adapt. If not, it’s going to age out, and we’re going to have a whole generation of people who just don’t engage with advice.
Younger customers, especially those who are engaged but less experienced, they want instant guidance. If the regulated industry can’t provide it, they’re going to go to TikTok, YouTube, influencers, ChatGPT.
And outside of our industry, people don’t really see that regulated boundary between advice and guidance. They just see everything as advice. They’ll take it from ChatGPT or from their dad’s mate down the pub.
That’s where targeted support becomes really interesting. It gives organisations the ability to move into that space and answer some of those needs for customers who maybe aren’t ready for full advice or don’t see it as something for them. And I think AI is going to be a really strong tool to help deliver that. Helping create those segmented, ready-made suggestions at scale and hopefully start to close the advice gap.
What do you think financial advice will look like in the future?
I think we’ll move from this scheduled, rear-view mirror service that we have at the moment, based around annual reviews, towards something that’s more continuous and proactive.
You’ll see more agentic AI systems that don’t just summarise text or conversations, but actually suggest or even take goal-driven actions, obviously with guardrails and regulation in place.
Advice will move from dense PDFs that you have to pick your way through, towards more personalised, bite-sized, real-time nudges delivered when the client actually needs them. That ability to spot changes and react in real time, that’s where AI is going to drive a lot of value.
Are advisors worried about being replaced?
I think that narrative is largely a myth now. Maybe two or three years ago, there was more of that panic, but the advisors I’ve worked with and interviewed over the last few years have been way more savvy and pragmatic than that.
They understand the administrative burden of the job, and they see AI as a lever to support them with those tasks. It’s about helping them grow their book in a more cost-effective way or reduce the burden on their team.
If you’re a senior leader, where should you start?
This might sound a bit simplified, but: Stop buying fragmented tech. Start being strategic. Start designing an AI-native operating model, because that’s where we’re moving to. Audit your data foundation. If your data’s a mess, your AI is going to be a liability.
Look at advisor workflows, map where the friction is, and instead of asking “how can we use AI?”, ask where your advisors are losing time and how you design an integrated system to remove that friction.
And then partner with experts. People who understand both the regulated advice landscape and the technical architecture needed to embed AI properly. That’s where you turn it from an IT expense into something that actually helps you win.
Leading in financial services and ready to move beyond the pilot stage on AI? Talk to our team.
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