Advisors warm to AI, but still have trust issues

Financial advisors are leaning into artificial intelligence to streamline their workdays, but they are drawing a firm line when it comes to who makes the final call on client advice, according to new research from Advisor360.

In its latest Connected Wealth Report, fielded by FUSE Research Network, Advisor360 surveyed 301 advisors at RIAs, broker-dealers and banks across the US. Respondents reported an average of $548 million in client assets under management, with a median firm AUM of $65 billion. The study suggests AI is becoming a practical tool in the tech stack rather than a futuristic threat.

The majority of advisors see clear benefits. Seventy-four percent said generative AI already helps their practice, while just 8% consider it a threat.

“Advisors say AI helps – not harms – their business,” one section of the report says bluntly, though it goes on to say advisors are emphatic about maintaining human judgment.

When asked about control, a 93% majority agreed with the statement, “I want to remain in control of final decisions and advice when using AI tools.” That emphasis on oversight helps explain why AI is being deployed most aggressively in lower-stakes, back-office tasks instead of portfolio construction or planning decisions.

That tracks with the annual regulatory oversights report FINRA released last month, which identified information summarization, sentiment analysis, workflow automation, and data categorization among the most common use cases for AI among its members, though the industry regulator said AI was also used for "tailoring products, services, or content to customer preferences and circumstances."

In the survey research from Advisor360, 31% of participants used AI to generate and send meeting summaries, 28% use it to update CRM records with notes or call summaries, and 26% lean on it for meeting preparation. A similar share use it to generate routine client communications and prefill onboarding or account-change forms. Only a small minority currently tap AI to identify investment options, and just 3% say they trust AI-generated financial recommendations.

Even when it comes to administrative work, many advisors only want AI to act under supervision. The majority said they would be comfortable letting AI handle tasks like scheduling meetings or sending routine communications without prior review, but they were more cautious about letting the technology generate and send meeting summaries directly to clients.

The biggest friction points are not enthusiasm or curiosity, but compliance and trust. Fifty-five percent cited compliance, cybersecurity and regulatory hurdles as primary reasons for not using AI tools, while 46% pointed to a lack of trust in AI outputs. A significant share also said they lack the time to learn or implement new AI systems.

Advisors indicated that industry guardrails could shift that risk calculus. The report found that 39% want proof that AI tools have been tested and validated by peers before allowing them to operate without human oversight, and 34% want explicit signoff from their firm’s compliance team. Many also cited regulatory approval, clearer explanations for AI recommendations, and visibility into underlying data as key to building trust.

Those hurdles will be crucial to clear for providers like Advisor360 as they roll out more AI-based features and integrations. Just last month, the platform unveiled what it billed as the industry's first AI-native wealth operating system, making its technology available to firms of all affiliation models and sizes.

According to Advisor360, firms have the ability to plug in the applications of their choice, while also having agentic AI capabilities deployed responsibly across workflows.

"Advisors and home offices need a unified operating system that adapts to their business, accelerates productivity, and delivers the benefits of AI without disrupting daily operations," Jason Quinn, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Advisor360 said at the time. "That is exactly what we’ve built.”