AI in 2021: RIA use cases

AI has been around since the 1950s, but advisers are just now adapting to the numerous ways the old technology can add value to modern practices.

GenTrust, which manages about $2.4 billion in assets, built its own proprietary AI-enabled technology called Airia to better service clients. The RIA has identified successful use cases for AI, such as employing intelligent systems to plan, track and execute adviser workflows for servicing existing clients as well as landing new ones.  

For example, automated systems monitor advisers’ communication logs, and help them keep in consistent contact with both clients and prospects.  

“This allows advisers to deliver the level of service they are committed to without the added stress of having to keep track of so many moving pieces by hand,” said Benjamin Brodie, chief technology officer at GenTrust. “In addition, complex cross-functional workflows are simplified through automated systems.

With just a few clicks, an adviser can submit a task on behalf of a client, something that would otherwise require extensive knowledge and time-consuming coordination between various operational teams," Brodie said.  

“They can monitor and confirm completion of such tasks, and even larger projects, through integrated systems that keep deliverables consistent and accessible,” he said. “Technology must fit into the on-the-go lifestyle of advisers, so all of this is done with attention paid to secure availability through mobile platforms as well as desktops.”   

AI can also connect advisers with what is happening with an investment team, and within clients’ portfolios in real-time. An integrated intelligent system gives advisers direct access to up-to-date portfolio risk analyses.  

"Advisers can use AI to analyze interactive client questionnaires and produce and present portfolio options based on individualized, multidimensional risk profiles, in real time and with ease from an iPad or laptop," Brodie said.  

“In this way, advisers are able to have virtually unlimited access to the expertise of our investment team, an otherwise finite resource,” he said. “This AI-empowered intake flows seamlessly into client onboarding and portfolio construction processes and forms the basis of each client’s highly individualized experience.”  

"AI has also raised the bar in portfolio management for clients, in terms of precision and specificity," Brodie said. "By leveraging new AI-driven technologies, wealth managers can deliver more to clients, while keeping their head count low and continually increasing operational efficiency."

“AI allows users to digest vast amounts of information, equipping experts on an investment committee to react with agility to evolving market conditions,” he said. “The ways in which AI enables an investment process falls into two broad categories: technologies that facilitate insights into markets, and technologies that enable highly specific analysis at scale.” 

"To leverage AI for market insight an RIA or wealth manager can utilize an analytical system that monitors markets, and performs continually, in-depth analysis that might take a human several hours to perform on a single asset class, let alone a universe of many."

“In this use case, AI doesn’t take on the role of the chief investment officer, so much as that of an army of analysts who give the CIO the context they need to make decisions,” he said.