Advisors snapping up AI tools at record pace, says Osaic CEO

Osaic CEO Jamie Price says that two of the company’s AI tools have enjoyed the fastest-ever takeup among its giant network of broker-dealers and registered investment advisors.

Speaking at Osaic’s 2026 NXT conference in Boston, Price told InvestmentNews that, while concerns about AI have swirled around both the corporate world and society as a whole, Osaic’s network of just under 11,000 advisors and broker-dealers have been quick to adopt the technology.

The advisor network began using Jump, a financial planning AI tool, and Zocks, and AI platform for automating workflows, in early 2025.

“Independent advisors are very independent, they will decide what they are going to use and they will decide at their own pace,” said Price. “So when you launch a tool in the independent space, the takeup rate can be very slow – it can take two to three years to get a penetration rate where the word of mouth, people using it, you get to 60,70 percent.”

However, this was not the case with Jump and Zocks. “We launched Jump and then Zocks quickly after – we saw almost a 30 percent take up rate in less than a year,” he said. “I have only been here 10 years and have not seen anything like that.”

It is, of course, relatively early days in the AI revolution, which makes the tools’ adoption rate even more marked. The latest Advisor Wealthtech Survey, released by Orion earlier this year, 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. However, over half of the respondents said that AI and automation will have the biggest impact on firm success in 2026 and beyond.

For Price, the cultural aspects of AI deployments outweigh even the technology itself. “I think the big differentiator is not being first, it’s going to be a fast follower and more importantly, have you culturally got all your employees and all your advisors comfortable with using AI?” he told InvestmentNews. “How do you create a workforce that is totally empowered by it, understands it, knows how to use it? Because adoption rate, in the end, will be the game, it won’t be the tool, it won’t be that you picked the right tool first because all these tools are going to change so fast.”

Companies in the wealth management industry are making their AI assaults on multiple fronts. Franklin Templeton, for example, is tapping into internal talent through hackathons and AI champions, while Raymond James is using focus groups as it ramps up the rollout of Rai, the company’s new AI operations agent.

Price explained that Osaic has built AI governance model. “That’s the first thing all companies have to do, particularly in a regulated industry … if you don’t have that you’re going to end up litigating every tool and capability every time that you decide to use something and you’re slowed down dramatically,” he told InvestmentNews. “Once you have a framework, then you know how fast you can move.”

“The second thing, I think, is cultural – we’re building a complete training program for our employees,” he said. “A lot of our employees, a lot of our advisors, are using these tools daily in their lives – they are early adopters, as they always are with technology, and they can teach and train a lot of other employees and advisors.”

Osaic is also tapping into the AI work done by its partners, such as Bank of New York Pershing, Fidelity, and Envestnet, according to the CEO. “We find ourselves not only partners with them, but now being able to leverage capabilities they are actually sifting through and putting on their tools, and capabilities that we also get to leverage, along with the things that we’re doing by ourselves,” he said.