That said, as commentators have pointed out, if the models get cheaper to develop and run then manufacturers and suppliers may yet see a surge in demand for components as access increases – so in a roundabout way, AI and AI-adjacent firms may taken some pain to reap rewards later. Despite initial wobbles, a Bloomberg Markets Live Pulse survey of 260 investors published this morning suggests investors see Deepseek as having little to no impact on tech giants’ shares in coming weeks.
If your exposure to AI is largely limited to market movements, you’re not alone in the financial planning community. Recent Opinium research found that nearly two thirds (64%) of advisers have no plans to introduce the technology to their business this year. However, work is ramping up – around one in seven are already using the tools.
Advisers at the FTRC’s Empowering Advice Through Technology conference on Thursday heard that they risk getting left behind if they don’t jump on board. Used well, AI has potential to be a great time saver – think meeting notes, document summaries, lead generation and client outreach for starters. And in its current guise it’s not coming for advisers’ jobs – just yet at least.
As someone who uses the technology to save time in some capacity every day (no, it doesn’t write our articles!), I’d strongly encourage any adviser who’s not looking into it to do so.
This might make you rethink any hesitancy: if you run a firm and you haven’t got an AI policy in place, you’re open to the risk of other members of the team jumping in without your knowledge or proper scrutiny. The results could range from bonkers to unprofessional to a real security or regulatory issue.
For a ‘bonkers’ example (courtesy of Multiply chief technology officer and co-founder Mike Curtis, who I caught up with for some tips on getting started), once you’re done reading our top articles of the week below you should pop open your browser and Google search ‘where does the Haggis live’. As per the search engine’s AI overview, the wild haggis is a small herbivorous animal with rough skin and lots of hair.
For those newer to the whole shebang and looking to get a serious non-haggis handle on AI, Curtis suggests first building up your confidence outside of the workplace.
“Use it in a personal capacity, be that helping to build an exercise or diet plan or making a quiz to work through with your children,” Curtis said. “Get a sense of how it works, where it doesn't work, what it's good at, what it's bad at – that's the real superpower in that you can then go into conversations with some confidence about what's going on and what the limitations of technology are.”
Many advisers that Multiply works with are not necessarily hugely “comfortable technologically”, but they do want to cut down on “all those bits of your job that you don't really enjoy doing – the pain points, the slow tasks, the document manipulation.”
There are a couple of don’ts for newbies who do want to start introducing the tech.
For starters, despite the hype, Deepseek may not be your best avenue in right now, especially at work. Censorship and potential security concerns around the Chinese initiative have been widely reported, and it’s already been subject to a sensitive data leak as uncovered by security platform Wiz.
It almost goes without saying, but plugging sensitive information into a model (particularly a free one) should be an instant no.
Advice businesses entering the fray should also steer clear using the technology to engage with clients without a “very thorough” human in the middle. Unchecked, the models can mix up words and get things wrong, with potentially damaging outcomes for trust and compliance (for example, you might find yourself in hot water if it misuses the word ‘competitive’ or mixes up figures). As in health and fitness, there’s an 80/20 rule here. AI might do a fabulous job of 80% of a task but “an awful lot of work” is in that final 20%, according to Curtis.
AI proponents like Curtis are hopeful that Deepseek developments could cut down the cost of the tech for businesses. With LLMs improving – to be fair to Google, it no longer tells you it’s safe to mix gasoline in with your spaghetti – and firms seriously engaging with how they can minimise admin pains, it could pay to get comfortable.
Also in PA this week, we rounded up last year’s top five biggest M&A deals. Platform Nucleus’ swoop for Third Financial nabbed in the top spot by a country mile, adding £6bn in AUM. Aviva-owned Succession Wealth’s purchase of True Wealth Group saw it top the table for biggest deal by AUA.
With the FCA zooming in on consolidation, we’ll see whether deals continue at pace in 2025. On theme, MKC Wealth CEO Dominic Rose caught up with PA senior reporter Isabel Baxter to share his predictions on consolidator consolidation.
In other news, advice firm Almond Financial’s switch to a four-day working week made a splash. It’s an unconventional move aimed in part at attracting Gen Z and Millennial talent. Whether more advice businesses will follow suit is up for debate– in November, half (50%) of 55 advice industry respondents to PA Asks said that a four-day week would not work for them, with client demand a commonly cited barrier.
In an opinion piece you shouldn’t miss, Morningstar Wealth managing director Mark Sanderson called for financial services to do better on support for bereaved families. Drawing on personal experience and regulatory findings, the piece makes for bleak – but important – reading.
That's it from Professional Adviser this week!
