Our US correspondent continues his coverage of fintech and wealth management sector issues from a major annual conference in New Orleans.

For earlier articles this week, see here, here and here.

Financial advisors attending the T3 Technology Conference in New Orleans have been bombarded with hyperbolic presentations from software vendors touting the glories of artificial intelligence.

In the trenches, there appears to a paradoxical reaction to the AI onslaught: advisors are proceeding with extreme caution, tempered with what Advisor360 president Darren Tedesco calls “skeptical excitement.”

Advisors’ primary concern centers on security and privacy issues. “It makes me nervous to put an AI agent in a computer and let it run wild,” said Shane Cummings, director of technology at California-based RIA Halbert Hargrove. “How do you vet these products? Where are the guardrails?”

Cummings and other advisors who were interviewed at T3 were all apprehensive about the potential for AI to violate their client’s trust and privacy.

“The most common question I get from my clients is ‘What are you doing about security?’” said Cummings, who is also a wealth advisor.

“There’s a lot of trust that goes into a client relationship,” added H Jude Boudreaux, senior financial planner at The Planning Center. “As the steward of the client’s information, we have to do a deep dive on [to check whether] AI is working and that there’s more than an assumption that their data is kept private.”

Roadblocks

Advisors’ unease with AI revolves around what Advisor360’s Tedesco described at a conference session as “compliance and control and regulation and reliability.”

Tedesco noted that the heavily regulated financial services industry has traditionally been slow to adopt new technology as regulators have customarily been “late to the party” when it comes to grasping the capabilities of new tech products. For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission has still not decided whether AI generated content should be considered part of an advisory firm’s official “books and records.”

AI’s lack of context and “ability to think horizontally” was a concern for Carolyn McClanahan, principal at Life Planning Partners in Jacksonville, Florida. “People are relying too much on AI for forecasting,” she said. “You’re introducing systemic risk if you use AI for economic forecasting as part of investment management.”

Human nature is also holding back AI adoption, said advisors at a panel on AI adoption. “The tech stack is growing and you’re asking people to do one more thing,” said Christy Hansard, a financial planner for the Atlanta-based finoBlue Planning Group. “It’s also the fear of the unknown,” said Rita Robbins, president of Affiliated Advisors. “This is all brand new.”

Adoption issues

Advisors at the conference were optimistic that AI wouldn’t cause jobs to be lost and would improve efficiency and productivity. They did, however, think there will be fewer new hires and new job categories.

“I think we’re going to slow down hiring but not eliminate jobs,” Cummings said. “Hopefully it will make us more efficient and reclaim capacity.” Boudreaux agreed. “I think roles will shift rather than go away.”

Despite all the anxiety, advisors are, of course, beginning to adopt AI tools. According to an Advisor360 survey, 90 per cent of US advisors are interested in using AI to expand service offerings.

AI note taking was the most cited use case category by advisors At T3. Microsoft’s Copilot was one of the most frequently mentioned products, followed by FP Alpha and Holistiplan.

Looking ahead, surveyed advisors expect tax planning, model creation and retirement income planning to be the categories most likely to be targeted for service expansion via AI use cases, according to the Advisor360 2026 Connected Wealth Report.

Illustratration of how advisors view AI

Source: Advisor360

The "Aha!" moment

But what will it take to get advisors to actually adopt the new AI tools for these categories?

“Start with pain points,” said Hansard. “Work with your team to determine what problems you’re trying to solve.” Robbins advocates using tech champions to raise adoption rates. “Advisors will listen to successful advisors,” she said. Chrissy Lee, chief operating officer for Merit Financial Advisors agreed. “Use early adopters and beta testers,” she said. “Advisors do want to hear from other advisors.”

More widespread AI adoption will happen when there’s an "Aha!" moment and advisors realize it will make life easier,” said Tedesco.

“I’ve never heard a complaint that something was too easy.”