Concrete examples of how AI can be used by advisors right now
Blog posts, emails and videos are many ways generative AI has entered the lives of advisors over the past 18 months, said Jason Pereira, senior partner and financial planner at Woodgate Financial.
Pereira began by showing a video of how he asked ChatGPT to generate code for a PowerPoint presentation on the topic he was presenting. Within seconds, the chatbot spits back slide after slide of headlines, bullet points and speaker notes. He then copied and pasted the code into PowerPoint. After running the script, he suddenly had six slides of text.
He then sat on stage while a video from a company called HeyGen played. It appeared to be a video of Pereira speaking, but it was a completely artificial fake. He then played the video again, this time in Mandarin.
On the more practical side, Pereira showed the results of a query to the AI chatbot Perplexity. He then pasted it into an email enabled with AI writing assistant GrammarlyGO. The AI started correcting the other AI's grammar.
“Two AIs can get into a fight,” he said.
Putting 'micro apps' together like a LEGO set
The fragmented nature of advisor technology groups led Oleg Tishkevich, founder and CEO of Invent.us, to develop what he calls a “super app.”
Invent.us debuted the Invent Village at Wealth Management EDGE this year, featuring demo stations showcasing the integrations these companies are building using the technology platform.
Tishkevish said these partners have built “micro apps” that users can pick and choose to “assemble just like a LEGO set.”
Turn off comments
Myles Blechner, managing director at ACA Group, advised financial advisers to turn off the comment function if they use social media posts for their business.
“When it comes to social media, it is unmoderated. It's the Wild West. I generally advise my clients to ignore the comments, even if you want that SEO. You don't want to open Pandora's box.”
Not being able to comment may turn some people off, but many more potential customers will be turned off by bad comments or spam, Blechner said.
He also recommended adapting a zero-tolerance policy for emojis in communications since they appear as red lines in archives and you may have to explain what each one was to the SEC.
-Eliane Misonzhnik
AI won't take your job, but someone using AI will
Davis Janowski, senior technology editor of WealthManagement.comwasted no time with the tough questions for John Froese, director and head of banking and wealth management at Google Cloud.
Put bluntly, Janowski wanted to know if Google's ultimate goal was to replace financial advisors—referring to a column he wrote a year ago about the Range startup getting $12 million in Series A venture capital funding led by Google's AI-focused venture fund.
Froese clearly said no, adding that Google's VC fund, Gradient Ventures, was one of several of the company's venture capital arms, and those investments were geared toward personalization for customers.
“When you think about the scale that our treasury team has to manage from a cash perspective … we have to invest it somewhere, he said. “AI companies will attract our attention and interest. Anything that democratizes information or the ability to do things yourself. We are not a financial services company. We don't want to create financial services products. We will work with others to make it easier for the user.”
As for the advisors themselves, Froese said Google aimed to streamline workflows.
“HE is not going to take your job,” he said. “Someone using AI will take your job.”