Written by: Ryan Scott
Yesterday, my friend shared a link to a new artificially intelligent personal assistant that can communicate independently with clients.
Her name is Amy and she is superwoman compared to Siri . Unlike Siri, Amy can work independently, multi-task, make her own decisions and can even teach herself to emotionally connect with others based on their digital footprint. The scary thing is robots are having more engaging conversations over email than we are (talking about interests like the Atlanta Falcons, paddle boarding or the BCS Championship).
This evolution will cause ripples in the financial services industry, hold advisors to higher engagement standards and dramatically shift the traditional advisor’s role.
Are your ready for Robo 2.0? The Financial Advisor will be held to higher client engagement standards with Robo 2.0 in order to remain valuable in the client’s eyes. Superficial conversations are “out” and deeper wealth mentoring relationships are “in.” Are you Robo 2.0 ready?
With “robots” entering Fintech with robo-advice platforms (Robo 1.0) our industry is going through a major shift. Are you prepared for the next round of enhancements?
I am predicting that Robo 2.0 will bring an army of “Amys” to advisor’s offices handling all previously manual tasks like answering client email, booking appointments, superficial “checking in emails”, documenting client meetings, building portfolios and lead gen. Amys will assist in nearly every facet of financial planning except for the actual meeting with clients and managing their behavioral biases. Many have speculated that an advisor’s role in the future will be akin to a pharmacist equipped with an automatic pill dispenser, a check and balance in the financial planning process.
I disagree.
This is inefficient and not the best use of advisor’s talents. In Robo 2.0, firms will review and prepare all portfolios centrally and deploy their advisors to be the firm’s face and voice. The advisors will be the shoulders to cry on during a death or divorce, a counselor for health and wealth, and a gladiator for the client’s goals. Robo 2.0 advisors will be pushed to non-traditional work hours to keep up with the demands of their clients and the reality of the 24/7 capabilities of their Amys and the diverse services being offered.
Not all Robo 1.0 advisors are suited for 2.0.Higher client engagement standards. The main advantage that a robot has over the human is that they fully prepare before a meeting. In a research study, we recently completed, advisors will not emotionally engage 40% of prospective clients. The way that they approach them in their first interactions will be a complete turn off (whether it be too pushy, too salesy, or just a personality mismatch). Robo 2.0 platforms will be able to reduce this mismatch by drawing on data from data.com, behavioral science, and demographic databases to know exactly to whom they are talking, their interests, their personality, their likely needs and key demographics and the ability to change their pitch accordingly.
In order to be competitive, advisors must emotionally connect to their clients, quicker and more reliably, by better understanding their financial personality and how to provide the type of personalized support each person needs.