Through our training and coaching, we have come to understand that not every advisor has truly embraced AI in their business. That's perfectly fine – we've existed without it throughout human history. But there are some real-world business benefits worth considering.
Think of AI as a tool that can help you generate ideas, organize your thoughts, and create initial drafts … which you can then finish with your intuition, ingenuity, and experience. The more you use it, the more we think you'll like it.
So when can AI be used in your practice? Consider your current projects as a starting point. Are there elements that can be accelerated together with an AI assistant? Use the following as a starting point:
- Creation of Standard Operating Procedures
Drafting detailed SOPs can be tedious, but AI simplifies this process. Let's say you need a customer onboarding process. By asking a service like ChatGPT to provide an outline and giving them a few examples of what you want to include, you'll be amazed at the quality of the output.
- Creating customer letters and emails
Let's say you're designing an invitation for a market update event; AI can generate a great first draft that explains the benefits of participation and key takeaways.
- Summary of transcripts from meetings
Virtual meetings are now standard in customer interactions, and AI transcription tools can create summaries of your recordings. This reduces the need for manual notes, ensuring you capture key points and action items.
- Writing scripts for videos
For advisors creating video content, AI can help by generating initial scripts based on key points or topics you want to cover. This can streamline the content creation process, ensuring your messages are organized and engaging.
- Generating ideas for client events
AI can also help with brainstorming customer event ideas and suggesting topics, activities or venues based on your target demographic. This makes planning events more efficient while keeping them in line with your customers' preferences and expectations.
- Writing blog content
Maintaining an active digital presence is critical, and AI can help by generating blog topics, crafting posts, and even planning social media content. This ensures that you stay visible online without constantly creating content from scratch.
While AI offers many benefits, it is important to recognize its limitations:
- Lacks emotional intelligence: AI can draft emails or generate ideas, but it lacks the emotional intelligence needed for nuanced customer interactions. Human supervision is always necessary.
- Compatibility: AI-generated content must be reviewed to ensure compliance with financial regulations. It cannot replace your knowledge of regulatory requirements.
- Personal link: While AI can handle drafts and reports, it can't replicate the trust and personal relationships you build with clients. Keep the human touch front and center in your practice.
AI can help you streamline routine tasks and free up time for more customer-focused activities. By embracing it for drafting, summarizing, and idea generation, you can increase efficiency without sacrificing quality. Remember, AI isn't about replacing the advisor—it's about amplifying your skills so you can deliver even more value to your clients.
Stephen Boswell is a partner with the Oechsli Institute, a firm that specializes in research and training for the financial services industry. @StephenBoswell www.oechsli.com