Registered investment advisors are pouring more money into artificial intelligence, but a new benchmark study suggests it's not the size of the war chest that pushes firms to the forefront of the race for AI leadership.
According to the State of Wealth Management AI Adoption study Cerulli released in partnership with Vista Equity Partners, governance structure – not assets under management or technology spend – is the strongest predictor of whether a firm is pulling ahead on AI.
The study surveyed 68 RIA firms between May and July, representing approximately $1.2 trillion in aggregate assets under management, and included more than 20 executive interviews.
Using a proprietary "Vista AI Maturity Score" that grades firms from 0 to 100 across governance, operational efficiency and innovation, Cerulli sorted respondents into three tiers: Exploring, Scaling and Leading. Based on that assessment, half of firms surveyed were sorted into the bottom tier, 38% were scaling, and only 12% have reached Leading status.
The deciding factor between those tiers comes down to organizational choices rather than sheer financial firepower. Firms with a centralized or hybrid governance model scored more than 2.5 times higher on average than those with decentralized or undefined approaches, and 63% of Leading firms reported a centralized structure compared with 29% of Exploring firms. Three-quarters of Leading firms run formal AI training programs, versus 21% of Exploring firms, and half rely on designated AI champions to drive adoption from the ground up.
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When it comes to key operating practices, Cerulli found leading firms consistently led the way in areas such as using AI-native, purpose-built tools (100%), running formal AI training programs (75%), giving AI ownership to their chief technology officer (75%), and measuring cost savings from AI (50%). The upshot of all that work, according to the report, isn't a push to reduce their workforce, but an increase in hiring as firms lean into newly unlocked capacity.
"The conversation around AI in wealth management is shifting from headcount reduction to productivity," said Asher Cheses, senior director of wealth management at Cerulli. "The firms seeing the greatest success are using AI to automate administrative work, improve client engagement, and give advisors more time for the planning conversations and relationship-building that technology can't replicate."
Based on Cerulli's polling, 73% of firms plan to add junior advisors over the next two years, 67% plan to add client associates, and 56% plan to add senior advisors, all far ahead of the 23% planning to add administrative staff.
Alongside that human capital push, AI-specific spend is projected to roughly double as a share of firms' technology budgets in 2026, from 8% to 15%, with investment set to be concentrated in enterprise AI model licenses, purpose-built tools and formal training rather than experimentation for its own sake.
Dan Parant, managing director and global head of private wealth solutions at Vista Equity Partners, said the firms capturing the most value treat AI as more than a line item.
"Firms getting this right aren't treating AI as a cost-cutting tool," Parant said. "They're treating it as a growth engine."
Even so, the productivity gains firms are reporting today remain concentrated in lower-stakes work. Client communications, meeting preparation and documentation are the most widely adopted use cases, at 82% of firms, while investment research and financial planning – workflows that sit closer to the advice itself – remain mostly in pilot.
Part of the holdup might be due to compliance, regulatory and data-privacy concerns, which remain the most commonly cited barrier to broader adoption cited by 54% of firms. Others cited barriers such as a shortage of internal AI expertise (40%) and the need for change management (29%).
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