As someone who started working in this industry at the dawn of the dot-com boom, I’m feeling a bit of déjà vu. Back in the 1990s, many skeptical advisors weren’t using email and the thought of having a website seemed inconceivable.
Now, 25 years later, only around 10% of advisors use generative AI models throughout the day. And while that is a rapid uptake historically, I’m concerned about the 90% who haven’t yet realized what a game-changer generative AI is for how you work, interact with your clients, and grow your businesses.
My professional mission now is to help advisors harness the immense potential of generative AI by introducing them to simple, practical use cases. In this article I’ll show you some useful ways you can put AI to work.
These applications not only save you precious time but also enhance the quality of your service, deepen client engagement, and free you up to focus on what matters—growing your business and enjoying your personal life.
Skepticism vs. reality
When advisors grasp the capabilities of this technology, their reactions are one of amazement—“blown away,” “jaw-dropping,” and “unbelievable” are common descriptors I hear.
However, I’ve noticed that some advisors approach AI with skepticism or uncertainty. Many treat AI models like simple search engines, leading to disappointing results. Others worry about privacy concerns, a legitimate issue that is easily addressed.
The reality is that with about eight hours of proper training and understanding, these hurdles are easily overcome. By learning to communicate effectively with AI models and implementing simple safeguards like avoiding sharing personally identifiable client information, you can deploy this technology to your advantage.
It’s also crucial to understand that generative AI isn’t about replacing the human touch. Rather, it’s about augmenting your human intelligence and expanding your “action quotient”—your ability to do more in any given day. The key is to view AI as a co-intelligence, a powerful thinking partner that enhances your capabilities while you remain the essential human in the loop, responsible for the final output and decisions.
Below, you’ll find 15 practical ways you can integrate generative AI into your practice. These use cases range from tactical daily tasks to content creation and even high-level strategic planning. By the end, you’ll see a clear roadmap to start leveraging this technology, boosting your efficiency, and delivering even greater value to your clients.
See 7 Ways Advisors Are Using AI Now for examples of how advisors are putting these ideas in action.
Client communication and engagement
- Draft client emails and communications: Compose professional emails to clients about updates, recommendations, or meeting follow-ups. This not only saves time but also ensures consistency in tone and messaging across all client communications.
- Prepare meeting agendas: Generate structured agendas for client meetings to ensure you cover all key topics. Customize these agendas based on the client’s portfolio, recent market events, and specific financial goals, ensuring each meeting is productive and relevant. Brainstorm discussion points for deeper or more complex meetings.
- Expedite routine responses: Provide quick answers to frequently asked client questions. With AI, you can speed up responses across multiple communication channels, ensuring clients receive timely and accurate information without delay.
- Plan client events: Create invitations and promotional materials for seminars or workshops. This can extend to generating event agendas, speaker bios, and follow-up materials, creating a cohesive and professional experience for attendees.
Financial planning and strategy
- Generate personalized financial plans or summaries: Create customized financial plans tailored to each client’s unique situation. Beyond basic asset allocation, AI can factor in personalized goals like early retirement or funding a child’s education, adjusting the plan as life circumstances change.
- Generate investment policy statements: Help in outlining investment strategies aligned with clients’ goals and risk tolerance. These statements can be customized to reflect changes in a client’s life circumstances or market conditions, ensuring the investment strategy remains relevant and appropriate.
- Draft proposals: Prepare investment or financial planning proposals for prospective clients. AI can help you draft detailed, tailored proposals by analyzing prospective clients’ financial data and goals, ensuring that the recommendations are personalized and show a deep understanding of their specific needs, thereby increasing the likelihood of closing the deal.
Content creation and education
- Simplify complex financial concepts: Explain complex financial terms and strategies in simple language for clients. By leveraging AI’s natural language processing capabilities, you can translate technical jargon into layman’s terms and even adjust the complexity level based on each client’s financial literacy, ensuring they grasp key strategies like tax-loss harvesting or portfolio diversification. For example, AI could generate a short video script for explaining the concept of compound interest, making it more engaging and accessible for visual learners.
- Create social media content: Develop engaging posts for platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter to enhance your online presence. By analyzing current market sentiments and trending topics, AI can suggest or generate content that positions you as a thought leader, fine-tune your posts for engagement, and schedule them during optimal times to reach your target audience. This can include creating infographics, short video scripts, or poll ideas to boost engagement and showcase your expertise.
- Develop educational materials: Produce brochures, articles, or blog posts on financial topics to educate clients. Tailor these materials to different client segments, addressing specific concerns like estate planning for high-net-worth individuals or debt management for younger clients.
- Enhance presentations: Assist in creating content for presentations to clients or at seminars. This can include generating engaging visuals, metaphors, or storytelling elements that make financial concepts more memorable and impactful.
Market intelligence and research
- Market research summaries: Summarize market trends and economic news to stay informed and share insights with clients. This allows advisors to digest large amounts of information and provide timely, relevant updates to clients without spending hours on research. AI can go beyond simple summaries by identifying articles and reports most relevant to your clients’ holdings and risk tolerance, providing personalized insights and potential action items.
Compliance and documentation
- Assist in compliance documentation: Draft compliance reports and documentation needed for regulatory purposes. This can include generating first drafts of Form ADV updates, conflict of interest disclosures, or privacy policy statements, saving valuable time meeting regulatory requirements.
Marketing and business development
- Brainstorm marketing strategies: Generate ideas for marketing campaigns to attract new clients. AI can analyze your ideal client profile and suggest targeted marketing channels, even generating ad copy and landing pages optimized for specific demographics.
Language and accessibility
- Translate financial documents: Convert documents into different languages for non-English speaking clients. With AI-driven translation tools, you can ensure accurate translation of key financial documents such as investment policies or performance reports, while preserving the nuances of financial terminology, making your services accessible to a broader, more diverse clientele. This capability can extend to adapting content for cultural nuances, ensuring linguistically accurate and culturally appropriate language.
How can I learn how to use generative AI?
To get started with AI, you need structured, hands-on training focused on practical use cases. University of Pennsylvania Wharton School professor and AI pioneer Ethan Mollick suggests it takes about eight-to-10 hours of guided learning to grasp the full power of generative AI.
Horsesmouth’s The AI-Powered Financial Advisor Program offers an intensive, four-week course designed for this purpose. Through weekly two-hours sessions, you’ll learn essential skills such as effective AI prompting, AI-driven marketing strategies, and enhancing client engagement using generative AI.
The program covers everything from understanding different AI models to optimizing websites and streamlining client communications. Additionally, weekly AI Coaching Clinics provide opportunities to work on specific challenges and share insights with your peers.
By focusing on real-world scenarios and providing ongoing support, we can guide you on a practical path to overcome adoption hurdles and start using AI in your daily operations.