Raymond James is extending the rollout of its Rai operations agent, according to CEO Paul Shoukry, who sees AI improving the relationship between advisors and clients, while acknowledging the technology's limitations.
Speaking during the conference call to discuss the company’s second-quarter results Wednesday, Shoukry explained that Raymond James has rolled out Rai, its AI operations agent, to a few hundred advisors and their teams, as well as focus groups.
“We’re very encouraged by the strong initial feedback, and will continue to expand advisor and associate access over time,” he said.
Launched in January, the proprietary AI operations agent harnesses natural language processing and generative AI to deliver “curated natural language answers and guidance” to operational questions.
The Raymond James CEO also laid out his vision for how AI will form part of the company’s long-term strategy. “[AI] has already been helpful in our industry,” he said, while acknowledging the technology’s limitations. “We have had three client events in the last quarter with advisors and clients – one in Memphis, one in Atlanta, one in Miami, and I would tell you, when you see the advisor relationship with clients, there’s no doubt that the deeply personal relationships that advisors have with clients trump any kind of technology or AI bot that may exist in the future. These are deeply personal relationships.”
Shoukry said that he sleeps better at night knowing that his own financial advisor at Raymond James, if something happened to him, knows his wife and his family and knows what their financial objectives are. “That’s not something I would trust to an AI bot no matter how good the algorithm is,” he added.
But the technology can help the advisor/client relationship, according to the Raymond James chief. “That’s something that AI should help down the road, because it will help advisors come up with more bespoke tailored insights and advice, save them time on administrative tasks, and allow them to spend more time developing those deeply personal relationships with their clients,” he said.
Like much of corporate America, AI is looming large for the independent broker-dealer. Last month, at the company’s annual institutional investor conference, Shoukry acknowledged concerns about AI solutions in the wealth management industry but reiterated the company’s commitment to the technology. Specifically, he said that the technology can help solve the financial advisory industry’s talent shortage.
For the quarter ending March 31, Raymond James reported quarterly net revenue of $3.86 billion, above the estimate of $3.85 billion from analysts surveyed by Yahoo! Finance. The revenue number marked a 13% increase on the prior year’s quarter, and a 3% increase on the preceding quarter. The company reported adjusted earnings of $2.83 a share, above the average analyst estimate of $2.76 a share.
Shares of Raymond James are up 0.1% in extending trading.
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