In wealth management, AI becomes valuable when it is built into the way a firm runs, from how reports are prepared to how client questions are answered. Moving from experimentation to execution means turning those early wins into something a firm can trust enough to make integral to how it operates. But integrating AI successfully means challenging decisions about priorities, data, and people.

Leaders from three European firms — a single family office, a multi-family office, and a wealth manager — explored those decisions on a panel moderated by Peter O’Brien, Chief Revenue Officer at Addepar, at the Addepar AI Summit in London.

Even if we didn’t do it through AI, we would improve a process anyway by the fact we’ve looked at it closely.

Start with the process

Execution starts with a clear view of the process a firm wants to improve and the outcome it expects. Gathering problems from the people closest to the work, and testing each one for whether AI can help, gives that view a structure, and a small transformation team is one way to do it.

That clarity also keeps the process in check. “We need to balance out the time that we spend in driving AI and trying to figure out the return,” said one panellist. “This helps to really focus on the process and what you are trying to achieve, because the investment in time could be endless.”

Plus, looking closely at any specific workflow or process can pay off in its own right, whether AI becomes the solution or not. “Whenever we look at a process, what we find out is a huge amount of inefficiency in it,” said another panellist. “Even if we didn’t do it through AI, we would improve a process anyway by the fact we’ve looked at it closely.”

Expect clients to raise the bar

Moving from experimentation to execution changes what clients experience. Once a firm puts AI to work, clients expect the same speed and detail from it, and many now use AI themselves to check what they receive. “The turnaround time expectation is increasing drastically,” said one speaker. “We’re seeing more questions coming through from the clients that clearly have gone through some form of AI,” said another.

Clients also notice when a firm adopts modern tools, and they respond by asking to be more involved. “They appreciate that we’re maybe thinking about it with these more modern tools, but they want to be more engaged and more collaborative, which is a great sign,” said the multi-family office COO.

What you learn at the beginning of your career, it’s what allows you to judge the output of the AI that you are receiving

Keep investing in talent at all levels

AI is having an impact on labour markets and who adds value to a firm. When a tool can lift users to expert level, output stops being the differentiator, and what counts is whether people keep questioning what they produce. “But if you don’t have the thought to challenge yourself or to ask the question, you won’t evolve,” said one panellist. For those who do, the same panellist added, “The technology is there to allow you to succeed if you have got that mindset.”

Mindset is only part of the picture, because judgement is built through early-career work, and firms need to decide how to invest in juniors as AI takes on more junior-level tasks. It also matters for the strength of a firm’s senior leadership in the years ahead.

“What you learn at the beginning of your career, it’s what allows you to judge the output of the AI that you are receiving,” said the family office CFO. “How are we going to work with the junior talent to make sure that they get the training that we got in our early years?”

At the other end, the next hires may look different too. Once platform capabilities are in place, the need tilts towards people with deep expertise who can build the platform further. “I don’t know that the next hires would be more on the junior side,” said one speaker. “It’d be the opposite. It would actually be much more sophisticated.”

Get ahead of client concerns about security

As AI becomes part of how firms work, clients are paying closer attention to what happens to their data, and the questions are getting more specific. That includes which models a firm uses. “There’s client perception of certain models which they may or may not be comfortable with,” said one panellist.

Location is part of the same concern. Clients who were comfortable with data hosted in another region now want it kept within their own, and in some cases within their own specific country. O’Brien said requests of this kind are rising. “They’re now becoming very focused on their region and their countries and they want the data within that,” he said.

The concern may grow further, with clients likely to become more protective of their data as geopolitical and cyber security risks rise. “I think everybody’s very happy with the benefits now, but we’re already seeing the warning signs in the market,” said one speaker. Clear answers matter more as a result. “We’re really, really careful about data privacy, protection, where you’re pushing data, which model you’re using, where it’s stored, where the backup is,” the same speaker added.

Look ahead to agents

Agents are likely to be the next stage of execution, with the potential to learn a leader’s preferences, priorities and scope of work. “Say I get into the office in the morning, there’s an agent who knows me and they know my preferences, they know my personality, they know my client scope, and they’re able to help me prioritise — run my day, and run my operations,” said one panellist.

The aim is for routine work to simply run, in processes such as onboarding a client or transferring an asset, whether handled by agents or by other means. “It just works. And so you’re actually then talking more about the client, about how you move the business forward, what other services you can offer,” said the wealth manager COO.

Overall, the test of execution is whether the gain reaches the client or family. The panel concluded: “Hopefully we can find a way that the benefits really get back to the client, so the efficiency and the quality of the services are delivered to the clients we serve.”