IFAs have been facing the challenge of robo-advisors and social-media Finfluencers for a few years now. So how do we approach the dawn of the mass use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)? New tools such as ChatGPT are having an impact on just about all service and creative industries.
While AI is currently disrupting Hollywood scriptwriting and college essay writing, our industry continues to rely on personalized, tailored financial advice. AI will inevitably impact how we work, but we can see AI as an innovation to embrace rather than as a threat.
In short, ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chat engine that has been trained and designed to respond to detailed queries with comprehensive, factually correct answers to any question. So, one basic application for advisors might be:
“create a marketing message for a couple in Texas in their 50s with 500K in 401K and looking for lifetime income in retirement”.
It will serve up a comprehensive answer that can be edited and personalized, then used by advisors as a direct message, or in marketing materials. It is a quicker process than composing content from scratch.
AI will allow you to do more with less. The obvious applications for advisors are for client communications: marketing messages, proposals, client emails, blogs, newsletters and social media posts. You can personalize communications efficiently and engage with prospects and clients in ways that will help strengthen relationships and build your brand.
AI query responses are best used as a starting point for creating content. Currently the responses tend to be long-winded and dry, so you don’t want to simply cut & paste from ChatGPT straight into an email to a valuable lead. Ideally your communications should feel natural, and the recipient should not be aware that your personal message has been in part written by software. This goes for content on your website and blog posts too. Google has a knack of spotting AI generated text, so copying text directly might affect your website ranking.
While client communication is the place to start when experimenting with AI, there are multiple other applications. There is software available to help with infographic design,
risk management, customer service, portfolio optimization, and even tools to measure customer sentiment. These tools may help you with your pipeline and client acquisition as well as optimizing your connections with your current book. After a little research and practice, advisors will be able to deliver improved financial planning services even more efficiently.
This new generation of AI presents opportunities and challenges. Right now technology cannot replace the value proposition of an experienced financial advisor, but these innovations should not be ignored—there will be competitors in your market looking to get ahead leveraging the new technology.
More than ever advisors need to remind customers that we are providing real-world expertise and that the sound financial planning they receive comes from you, rather than from a computer or an algorithm! This technology cannot sell—that’s what you do—but it can help you communicate, measure, and plan.