Two fintech companies are making fresh bets on artificial intelligence to help financial advisors and asset managers sharpen their marketing and prospecting efforts.
Philadelphia-based Intention.ly has announced the launch of its AI Lab, a service line designed to deliver vetted, integrated AI marketing and sales tools to financial services firms.
The firm’s new offerings include custom GPT assistants, AI readiness audits, generative search optimization, and an AI-driven lead growth engine that automates outbound messaging and targeting. Intention.ly said it has formalized partnerships with select AI providers, giving clients access to preferred rates and comprehensive onboarding.
“The AI window of opportunity in our space is wide open, but its impact will be most powerful for those who act quickly,” said Kelly Waltrich, chief executive of Intention.ly.
Waltrich added that firms slow to adopt AI “risk falling permanently behind competitors who are already using these tools to slash operational costs and accelerate client acquisition.”
Zohray Brennan, director of marketing automation and operations at Intention.ly, touted the firm's ethos around integrating disparate AI and marketing platforms into unified systems.
“When you connect the right tools properly, you get exponential results that transform how fast you can scale,” said Intention.ly aims to help advisory firms scale more efficiently by amplifying the effectiveness of each tool.
The firm also offers AI SEO audits and a go-to-market engineering toolkit.
Meanwhile, AssetLink announced on Thursday that it has secured a US patent for its proprietary AI-driven financial matchmaking technology.
The system is designed to automate product distribution, advisor recruiting, and client relationship intelligence by correlating billions of data points and interpreting complex language and sentiment across the financial ecosystem.
According to AssetLink, the technology enables asset managers and RIAs to uncover high-value connections between advisors, products, and client needs, reducing the need for manual prospecting.
Devon Drew, founder and chief executive of AssetLink, said the patent “moves financial services beyond outdated, manual prospecting and into an era of intelligent, predictive matchmaking.”
Drew underscored the system’s deep semantic understanding, which allows firms to “precisely align products with opportunities and identify top talent at scale, significantly reducing the need for human intervention in routine tasks.”
The company says the patent solidifies its leadership in fully automated, AI-driven financial matchmaking.
The announcements come as new research underscores the rising role of marketing and digital tools in advisory firm growth.
According to new research from The Ensemble Group, the fastest-growing advisory firms – those achieving more than 12% organic growth last year – spent 3.8% of revenue on marketing and generated more leads from non-referral channels. By comparison, slower-growing firms invested just 2.2% in marketing. Referrals remain the largest source of new business, but outperforming firms are increasingly supplementing them with marketing, networking, and events.
The latest RIA benchmarking study by Schwab also found that digital advertising was the most effective lead-generation tactic for RIAs in 2024, with 85% of firms converting online ads into client leads. Beyond that, 20% of firms reported using AI to develop digital marketing content, while the most common AI applications included meeting preparation, notetaking, and drafting emails.
Operational drag between an advisor signing and accounts going live is emerging as a competitive liability for wealth management firms.
Bain says companies face a "winner's paradox" as AI transformation collides with complex integrations.
Deal lifts global assets to roughly $523 billion under management.
Choice anxiety, prestige bias, and the temptation to make selections based on outsourced confidence are just some of the parallels between investing and the world of wine tasting.
Regulators found Bank of America's monitoring software had a known flaw Merrill left uncorrected for years.
Dan Biagini of American Equity says the steady decline of pensions, longer lifespans and a reset in interest rates are rewriting how advisors build retirement income
Direct indexing is on pace to outgrow ETFs and mutual funds. Northern Trust's Ken Lassner explains why the advisors who get it wish they had started sooner.
