Andrei Pop, the founder and CEO of AI managed service provider Humanity Labs says that advisory firms should not get blinded by the hype around the technology, and instead think very clearly about what their ultimate goals are.
“Technology is an incredibly important part of what we do, but it is at the end of the day about the outcome and not about the tool,” he told InvestmentNews at the Schwab IMPACT event in Boston. “An agent is a tool and it's a very good tool, and we absolutely need great tools.”
However, the outcome is the most important thing, according to Pop. “Having a better tool does not on its own make a better outcome,” he said. “The outcome is what we should and must focus on.”
Earlier this year mega-RIA Mariner announced a partnership with Humanity Labs to deploy 700 full-time agents, with each bot costing $50,000 per year.
Pop told InvestmentNews that Humanity Labs has “transformative deals” with a number of firms, including Mariner. The total number of these firms is less than 10, he said, adding that these span asset management, wealth management, banking, insurance, and legal.
However, Humanity Labs has spoken directly to the C-suite or board of 250 firms, according to Pop. “We're educating and sharing and talking about what is possible when you build a firm of the future,” he said.
“The size of the firms that are in our pipeline today exceed a trillion of AUM,” Pop added.
AI adoption among independent RIAs is accelerating rapidly, according to research released in January by Schwab Advisor Services. The study, which was conducted in late 2025, found that 63% of firms are using AI in some capacity, more than doubling from 2023.
A new study of independent advisors by Schwab revealed a bright near-term outlook for adoption, with 81% projecting AI will handle at least some of their research and analysis within three years.
However, it is relatively early days in the AI revolution. The latest Advisor Wealthtech Survey by Orion, released in February, found that while about three quarters of advisory firms are using AI in some capacity, just 6% are utilizing agentic workflows and only 5% have implemented cross-system AI integration.
At IMPACT, CEO Rick Wurster said Schwab Wealth Advisory serves only existing retail clients, and he pledged support for sub-$100M RIAs as Fidelity drops them.
InvestmentNews traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, to cover Schwab's annual conference. All coverage can be found here.
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