How is the AI revolution hitting financial advice?

Most advisers already use AI for some form of note-taking or call transcripts. Some are already integrating it into their website and communications. Speaking at the SIFA Conference 2025, Kernel Wealth chief executive Dean Anderson described this as “a surface-level layer of very easy adoption,” but said there is the potential to go a lot deeper.

AI for branding and client experience

On the marketing side, Anderson said advisers need to think about how (or whether) their businesses appear in LLM searches. People are increasingly moving towards AI recommendations instead of the classic Google search, so when a potential client types in “best investment advisers NZ” into ChatGPT, you want your business to be up there.

LLMs prioritise in-depth information from authoritative sources, so strong content should be the priority.

“You now need to think about what kind of information you’re putting on your website,” Anderson explained.

“The SEO optimisation that works for Google does not work in an LLM world, so the type of content that you’re creating needs to be different. You need deeper, longer information - that means good long articles that can become a source of truth.”

AI is also solving one of the oldest challenges in financial advice - communicating complex concepts in simple language. You can plug your investment commentary into a LLM and ask for a translation into any vernacular - plain English, Wall Street English, Singlish - whatever works best for that particular client.

Betashares added that instant advice and AI-powered fact finds is going to become more common in the coming years, and so one of the key differentiators for advisers will have to be client experience.

“A lot of clients will consider self-servicing, particularly in light of AI and fintech coming at them,” national head of practice development Damon Riscalla said.

“It’s also really important that we point out to clients the dangers of not getting professional advice. Once you make the mistake, it can be incredibly costly and difficult to unwind.”

Using AI for data analysis

This is one of the most promising areas for AI, and it’s already making waves overseas. The Stanford Graduate School of Business spent a year developing an “AI analyst” to see if it could improve on the performance of mutual fund managers. Over a 30-year period, the bot outperformed 93% of human managers by an average of 600%.

Kernel Wealth has already done an AI data analysis road test. It recently used AI to conduct an SAA review of its diversified funds, and Dean Anderson said you can generate some very comprehensive research.

Advisers can upload spreadsheets of information and ask the AI to provide insights, generate a summarisation document, suggest an investment horizon, and other tasks. What used to take substantial manual labour can now be done in a fraction of the time.

“The model does an SAA review, looking at our funds, pulling all the data and doing the analysis, and I can carry on with my day,” Anderson said. There’s no doubt a lot more to come in this space.

Advising the next generation

With all of this in mind, where do humans fit in? According to Anderson, it’s going to be hard to add value if you’re just selling an investment portfolio and fund performance. The real value-add will be in relationships.

He noted a McKinsey study from several years back that looked at the future of advice, from pure robo-advice through to traditional financial services.

“The biggest category globally, and where the most revenue is for advisers, is hybrid advice,” Anderson said.

“There are a lot of models approaching this overseas at the moment and nobody has quite cracked it, but hybrid-advice is where you are very much leading into the platform and the technology.”

He noted that there is a lot of younger wealth coming through - young entrepreneurs starting very successful digital businesses, all of whom will need wealth and investment advice. This demographic wants and expects digital-first, but also something tailored and human.

“It’s that relationship and helping with complex problems that can’t be disrupted through technology - at least not for a very long time,” Anderson said.

“There is a lot of change that’s coming. You can be very fearful and overwhelmed with AI, but it’s about starting to engage with it and think about your business model. There is no shortage of opportunity out there - we need to scale more, and AI is going to be part of it.”