We’ve officially entered the second phase of AI adoption in wealth management. The first phase was dominated by experimentation: advisors dabbling with public tools to auto-draft emails, summarizing client meetings or building quick content. Now, firms are asking a far more strategic question: How do we find an AI partner who actually fits our business?
This isn’t just about picking the tool with the most features or flashiest demo. It’s about understanding how your firm works and selecting a solution that complements your workflows, supports your people and enhances the advisor-client relationship. That process involves curiosity AND clarity.
Start By Asking What Comes After The Chatbot
By now, most advisors have gotten a feel for what AI can do in isolated situations. The natural next step is to look beyond chat-based summaries and into something more embedded. The advisor’s time is best spent in meetings, deepening relationships and delivering insight. So, what kind of AI tools make it easier to get to those moments more often?
Some of today’s AI tools can provide meeting summaries. Others can highlight key tasks that need follow-up. But to be truly valuable, AI should do more than recap — it should initiate. For instance, if your AI can prompt workflows, assign tasks based on what happened in a client conversation, and even suggest the next best actions, you’re looking at something much more impactful than a summary bot.
AI should do more than recap — it should initiate.
Bring Intelligence To The Center, Not Just The Surface
Too many AI tools exist in silos. One handles tax planning. Another suggests marketing copy. A third sits in the background of your video calls. These tools might be useful in a vacuum, but they don’t talk to each other and they don’t give the advisor a unified view of the client.
To truly support a relationship-driven business, the intelligence needs to come together at the client record. That’s the heart of the practice. If AI insights aren’t captured there, then they’re just fragments. A strong AI partner won’t replace your CRM or your financial planning tools, but it’ll make those tools smarter and make your team faster.
It’s one thing to say a tool integrates with your CRM. It’s another entirely different thing to say that it understands your workflows. Practifi’s approach has been to embed intelligence directly into advisor workflows, making AI feel less like a separate platform and more like a co-pilot. For example, when a meeting is logged, AI can automatically suggest workflows, prefill forms and prompt outreach based on the client’s segment and service model. That’s what it means to partner with a platform, not just plug into it.
Don’t Mistake Automation For Personalization
Efficiency is often the first win firms seek from AI, and for good reason. Many of the most popular applications right now (like meeting note summarization, task reminders or automated agenda preparation) help advisors reclaim hours in their week. But efficiency alone isn’t enough.
AI should help you get more personal, not less. The best use cases strengthen relationships by helping you recall past frustrations, track changing goals and respond in context. You don’t need your AI to write emails for you. It’s needed to remind you that your client was concerned about a particular issue last quarter, so you can follow up like a human who listens.
One of the most common mistakes firms make is assuming AI can step in as a direct communication channel with clients. That’s a shortcut and it usually backfires.
“Why are you outsourcing me to a machine?”
Advisors who over-delegate communication to bots often hear it in client feedback. “I pay you to understand me,” clients say. “Why are you outsourcing me to a machine?”
That’s not just a sentiment issue. It’s a compliance one. Many AI systems aren’t built with fiduciary or regulatory oversight in mind. So, if you’re considering any tool that speaks on your behalf to clients, stop and reassess.
Ask The Right Questions Before You Commit
Choosing the right AI partner is also an operational decision. Before bringing on a new solution, consider the following:
- How does the AI generate its recommendations?
- What data does it use and how is that data secured?
- Can it provide audit trails for its outputs?
- Does it integrate natively with your CRM or tech stack?
- What’s the actual lift for your team to use this daily?
Remember, you’re looking for a partner that fits with how your firm works today and how you want it to grow tomorrow.
Start Small, Build Trust, Then Scale
No one said AI needs to change your business overnight. The firms that succeed start small. They pilot tools in low-risk, high-impact areas like meeting prep, client segmentation or workflow automation. They gather feedback. They adjust. And only then do they roll out broader capabilities.
The firms that succeed start small.
Your team doesn’t need to become AI experts. But they do need to trust the technology enough to use it consistently. That trust is built over time, and with the right partner, it pays off quickly. AI isn’t here to replace human advice. But it is here to help advisors be more human in the moments that count. Finding the right partner ensures your firm can keep doing what it does best with a bit more clarity, speed and confidence.
Adrian Johnstone is the CEO of Practifi.
