I've been building wealth management technology since the ’90s, and I want to tease the future a little.
This is the most excited I've been since launching AdvisorEngine.
I hope you will come away from this post inspired for what comes next.
Here’s a preview of the types of tools and capabilities we’re building for growing firms like yours.
Most of the buzz in our industry over the last two years has come from AI-powered point solutions: the notetaker, the lead gen tool, the chatbot.
At this point, many advisory firms have adopted these tools and seen some real value.
But now comes the real challenge, which I think is far more compelling: Incorporating AI at the platform level. That’s because the full promise of AI can only be achieved when it is delivered cohesively across workflows and features.
In order for your firm to reap the full benefits of AI, it must become embedded into your strategy, your operating model and your technology platform.
AdvisorEngine is positioned to help you do just that.
Our approach to product strategy involves infusing AI throughout the AdvisorEngine platform.
The AdvisorEngine platform is a true ‘System of Action’ built on years of labeled and contextualized data across the entire client and advisor lifecycle, running on real-time infrastructure.
We have never intended for our platform to be a basic database where information is stored. Instead, we have always focused on powering your business as a system of action where you can complete the critical tasks needed to serve clients, manage portfolios, run your business and grow revenue.
Historically, we have delivered on this promise through capabilities like purpose-built workflows. Going forward, AI will help you complete actions. Or in certain cases, it will execute actions for you autonomously in the background, acting on your behalf according to your instructions.
Let me illustrate the foundation supporting our system of action today, and how it will evolve with AI.
Step back for a moment and consider the question: What fuels the next wave of AI?
Simply put, it is rich data and deep context.
By running your data through AdvisorEngine, your firm will gain the ability to equip your desired AI capabilities with the fuel they desperately need.
I’ll try to bring this to life here, with some practical examples:
AdvisorEngine captures what we call ‘Workflow History,’ which is the record of how and why things get done at a particular firm. That context will enable your AI to act the way your firm actually works, not according to some generic default. Your value is in your unique service and care, and this will allow your firm to deliver it at scale.
We surface all interactions from our client portal, so that you can track and tailor support accordingly, and firms can let the client push their own actions too, such as account opening and cash transfers. That data and activity travel through our CRM and Portfolio Management systems, which we unify under one experience.
Having both in hand allows us to weave the two halves of a client’s financial tapestry. There’s the narrative side: the emails, the notes, the life events, the human intent. And there’s the numbers: the results, the holdings, the tax reality.
Our platform will not only see a portfolio that is outperforming and becoming riskier, for instance. It will note the client has been checking the client portal more frequently than normal, and will remind you that in your last meeting, they expressed concern about a market correction.
The system will go beyond simply suggesting the next step, to helping you complete it. It will prepare a note to the client about why it makes sense to rebalance their portfolio, and then it will actually cue up the tax-aware rebalance with a before-and-after analysis for your review and approval.
Plenty of third-party AI tools can do simple tasks, such as draft a note or cue a client action. What’s not readily available is connecting your key constituents within a single loop: the end client, the advisor, business operations personnel, third-party partners such as custodians, and the flow of data that’s exchanged. That round trip takes deep integration, bound together with context, and it’s where we have focused our work.
That's the leap from a chatbot that simply looks at data to a process guided by contextual insight.
The coming wave of AI is different. These tools will not wait for you to ask questions; they will be proactive and always ready for work. Think about what that means.
Spotting a problem is where most tools stop right now. Acting on that information, though, is another process. It takes judgement about whether to act at all, a chain of decisions with real trade-offs, and then follow-through to ensure things get done.
Making all of this happen will require a well-orchestrated team of agents.
An AI agent is a program that operates much like a worker bee; it is dedicated to accomplishing one specific task. According to their programming, agents can go through multiple steps to complete their assigned work.
Within our system of action, a dozen agents can act in concert, each doing one job well and handing off to the next. That co-operative tasking is what will make a whole practice feel like one experience.
As firms adopt more tools, they can end up managing an array of separate experiences. A platform should create compelling experiences that lead to seamless workflows across unified data and insights. That way, advisors, business operations personnel and clients stay in sync.
Ultimately, where we’re headed will give advisory firms the ability to serve many more clients and truly free up resources to focus on prospecting and building client relationships.
When will these capabilities be live and available for me to use?
Our first chatbot has been deployed internally, in production, and will be ready in Q4 2026 for client use. You will see multiple AdvisorEngine AI solutions deployed throughout 2027.
Will AdvisorEngine continue to work with third-party AI solutions, like the notetakers?
Yes. Openness is one of our core tenets, so we will continue to integrate with the best specialized third-party AI tools.
Do you believe that AI will replace human advisors?
Absolutely not.
Some people believe that AI will replace the advisor. In my opinion, that prediction fundamentally misreads why clients hire advisors in the first place. The advisory firms that thrive in this next wave will both embrace AI and connect with prospects and clients in a grounded, deeply human approach. They will be the ones whose intelligence understands the whole client, and whose advisors are freed to build up the core of any good relationship: Establishing trust, demonstrating judgement and honoring commitments.
We see the value of human advice rising, as clients will crave authentic, personal connection in a digital-first world. But in terms of ‘how’ people work and accomplish goals, in ten years, the landscape of wealth management will change.
Over the next few years, AI will reshape how work is done across every industry. Wealth management is no different. In this new world, in order to thrive, advisory firms need to change.
When I founded AdvisorEngine over 10 years ago, the technology, the business and the clients were vastly different than they are today. Change has always been a characteristic of this space.
But what has not changed for me and our team is the focus we’ve had from day one on our clients’ needs.
Our attention and detail has always been on furthering the experience you have in your business every day, delivering tools that are personal, scientific and beautiful – whether it is simplifying your critical tasks, improving the efficiency of your workflows or designing a process that is intuitive to advisors and their clients.
And now, with AI, we will bring that same care and sense of dedication to the next stage of wealth management innovation.
I’m so proud of the work our team has already done; it truly speaks to the camaraderie, the curiosity and the creativity we celebrate here.
To our clients: I thank you for your trust in what we build and your faith in our vision for what comes next.
AI innovation presents an opportunity to build a truly connected, intelligent practice. We intend to be the platform that makes that possible.
Rich