We all know client expectations are shifting, and the old playbook of sending yearly check-ins or generic market updates isn’t working anymore. Clients want to feel understood, not managed.
But that’s hard to do when you’re handling 100 relationships or more.
This is where AI can make an immediate impact. Yes, AI does a terrific job of automating administrative work and taking notes. But AI doesn’t just automate mundane tasks; it helps advisors communicate with more care and meet all of their clients exactly when and where they need advice.
When Uncertainty Spikes
When markets get shaky, clients start communicating differently. Email responses get shorter; questions change from “How’s my portfolio doing?” to “How liquid are my investments?”
Most advisors are great at reading these signals during a meeting. But it’s nearly impossible to track these patterns over weeks or months, across all your clients. So when it’s time to meet again, you’re likely not going to remember or dig up those past details, let alone see the trendlines.
Many advisors overcommunicate to get ahead of any client concerns, usually with a market update or general advice. This was once a good best practice, but not anymore. People expect individual attention. AI can personalize advisor-client engagement in a way that just wasn’t scalable before.
AI can extract insights from client interactions that an advisor might not immediately have. By analyzing changes in sentiment, urgency and tone across conversations, notes, emails and more, AI can identify subtle shifts. A client might be using shorter phrases, pausing more often or asking different types of questions. AI can automatically detect these cues, and prompt an advisor to bring up specific topics at the next meeting or send an email now.
Bringing Purpose Back Into The Conversation
Uncertainty also tends to create tunnel vision. Clients become fixated on the news cycle or their current balance and long-term goals can get pushed aside. But the big things — retiring early, funding their kids’ education, supporting aging parents — shouldn’t change much.
AI can help advisors bring those goals back into focus, and use previous conversations to reframe the present moment.
Instead of leading with a market update, you can remind clients of their own words: “Six months ago, you mentioned wanting to retire at 58 so you could travel while you’re still healthy. Let’s look at how recent market gains affect that timeline.”
That level of context transforms a simple check-in into a moment of trust and support.
Detecting What CRMs Can’t
In advisor-client conversations, especially more personal ones, there can be a gap between what a client says and what they truly mean. Risk tolerance questionnaires can’t capture how someone actually feels when their portfolio drops 15%; a client might check “moderate risk” on a form but make a panicked call when markets really move.
A client might check “moderate risk” on a form but make a panicked call when markets really move.
These are all nuances that probably wouldn’t make it into a CRM system, but AI can now track these patterns automatically and throw off an alert to an advisor, even before the client might fully recognize their concerns.
These insights let advisors engage with empathy, precision and proactive support — all the things that grow long-term client relationships.
The Compliance Conversation
As the advisory space grows with new technology and tools, so do compliance concerns.
For example, since AI can recommend outreach based on client data, what’s the policy on privacy, supervision and documentation? SEC and FINRA rules governing books and records, client disclosures and fiduciary obligations obviously still apply. But firms need to determine how recordings, AI-generated transcripts and meeting summaries fit into these frameworks.
Integrating AI into a practice should be treated like any other tool: with explicit rules, documentation and oversight. Choose an AI tool that can support your compliance workflows from day one, not retroactively. Transparency and clear audit trails are what will allow AI to scale safely in our regulated industry.
Delivering What the Client Wants, At Scale
Clients are looking for more than just advice when speaking with their financial advisor. They want to feel like their advisor is thinking about them even when they’re not in the room, and they want conversations to accurately reflect their goals, values and lived experiences.
They want to feel like their advisor is thinking about them even when they’re not in the room.
The best AI tools help advisors provide service to clients and engage with all of them more effectively.
Mark Gilbert is the CEO and Co-Founder of Zocks, a provider of AI assistants.
