Real AI at work for advisers

Three firms where artificial intelligence is helping with financial planning

While there is still a lot of smoke and mirrors and empty hype in the artificial intelligence marketplace, there is some real functionality coming to advisers from several providers.

Here are three examples of AI technology in production today.

Micronotes
Combining AI with survey technology, Micronotes takes consumer data at banks and identifies patterns to send targeted questionnaires, including queries such as “Are you thinking of buying a house over the next six months?”

Using targeted questions, the surveys get much higher response rates than traditional marketing efforts, and leads are automatically pushed toward the relevant salesperson, or financial adviser in the bank’s wealth management division. The software could work in brokerages and RIAs as well as banks, according to Mark Casady, founder of Vestigo Ventures, an investor in Micronotes.

Envestnet
Using data aggregation and analytics from its purchases of Yodlee and Wheelhouse Analytics, Envestnet has an application for financial institutions it calls AI FinCheck. As part of its FinApps suite of financial wellness apps, the digital assistant measures and monitors consumers’ financial picture across spending, saving, borrowing, investing and financial planning.

The tool will recommend personalized actions that the consumer can take to improve or automate aspects of their financial life. Advisers can provide AI FinCheck to clients to deepen relationships.

Salesforce
Launched in 2016, Salesforce’s Einstein was one of the first customer relationship management technologies to feature an AI component. The technology gathers client data from the CRM and combines predictive analytics, natural language processing and machine learning to search for new opportunities, such as, which clients might be open to a new product or most likely to leave the adviser.

Einstein can help advisers understand how clients feel using sentiment analysis of client communications. The technology also connects to digital assistants from Google, Apple and Amazon to give advisers voice command functionality.