Last post from the panel at the Global WealthTech Summit.
An audience question asked how the use of AI will change as wealth moves to younger, more technical generations. Jason Chapman (UK Chief Commercial Officer at Moneyfarm and CEO of Willis Owen) gave the answer I've been thinking about since.
He began with who the customer is.
"The average age of inheritance in the UK is sixty-one. Those people are using technology at work, at home, and buying all sorts of products. We are judged by the best experience they had yesterday."
Why we might not reach that standard.
"We have regulatory friction that holds some of those practices up. And we have operational friction, because your business was built on one particular product proposition that you've now grown, acquired and have added products to."
On the supply of advice, he was realistic.
"We're not replacing financial advisers at the level we need to, to offer the affluent middle a place to go to get advice at a cost they would want to pay. That's reality."
Then he questioned the framing itself.
"I would question whether we have an advice gap in the UK and Europe, or whether we actually have an engagement gap. You don't often know you need advice until you've actually spoken to someone about your situation."
Where he sees AI helping is before advice.
"AI can fill the gap between confidence, knowledge and trust before you even get to advice. You can ask an AI model loads of different questions without feeling like you're stupid. Nobody's watching you. You can do that in the comfort of your own home."
He was equally clear about the risk.
"We need to be careful how customers perceive AI as an advice tool. Who's actually behind it giving the advice? Is it somebody with thirty years of financial planning experience, or somebody that builds AI tools?"
And he's not predicting a clean sweep.
"I just don't see it as being as fast as others do, because I've always seen the value of advice, even though I work in a non-advisory business. It doesn't necessarily have to be all human, though. There are lots of people with simpler needs that we can cater for, digitally or with AI."
Earlier in the session, Din Mustaffa (CFO, Evelyn Partners) answered a related question: is operational complexity driven by clients, or created by the firm itself? His answer was both.
"Smaller firms may have faster decision-making and execution. In a bigger firm you have the benefits of scale, but the danger is you start to have many layers, to the point that people lose a sense of ownership and agency. It's less about the size of the business and more about how you operate."
His discipline:
"Regularly review the operating model of the business. Remove unnecessary complexity, and remove spend and layers where necessary."
My observation: nobody on stage argued for AI first. Both started from what the client needs and what the operation can support today. That's a better order than most of the AI conversations I hear.
Thank you to Din and Jason for being so open with the room.