Professional Adviser: The AI era demands redesign, not optimisation

Bankside Power Station sat empty on the Thames for two decades. When architects Herzog and de Meuron were commissioned, they did not try to modernise the power station; they accepted that its first job, generating electricity for London, was finished.

Instead, they preserved the elements that defined its identity: the chimney, the turbine hall, and the brick shell. Then they opened it up to light, people, and art, reimagining its purpose entirely—from generating power for a city to generating culture for the world. That building became the Tate Modern, now the most visited modern art gallery in the country.

The financial services industry is facing the same decision today. Firms have served clients and built and preserved wealth through systems that have matured over decades. The question now is whether we have what it takes to redesign the building, or whether we will simply rewire the old one and call it transformation.

The demand for advice is going up, not down

There is growing trepidation that artificial intelligence will shrink the role of the adviser, but evidence points the other way. Economists call it a ‘Jevons employment effect', the paradox that when technology lowers the cost of professional work, demand for that work expands rather than contracts. With advised relationships projected to rise 28% globally, AI is not reducing the need for advisers. Instead, it is making the redesign of advice more urgent: how it is delivered, where advisers spend their time, and where human judgement actually creates value.

Most firms are not AI native yet. They are layering new tools onto legacy processes and calling it transformation. In reality, that creates a fragmented technology estate and isolated pockets of automation. A faster version of an inefficient process is not a better proposition, it is the same building with new wiring.

Agentic AI can already cut adviser prospecting time by nearly half and lift net new assets under management by 30% to 40%. But efficiency that everyone can buy is not a real advantage. If firms use these gains only to do the same work more cheaply, they accelerate commoditisation, because the same AI-enabled workflows quickly become standard across the industry. The differentiator was never access to the tool, it is what you redesign around them.

Agency: free the time, then use it well

One of AI's most powerful effects is removing the administrative and coordination burden. Freeing advisers from paperwork is a starting point, not a strategy. The real opportunity is to decide what that reclaimed time is for.

The advantage will not go to the firms producing advice more cheaply. It will go to the ones using that freed-up capacity to deepen the human side of the relationship: coaching clients through life transitions, navigating multigenerational family governance, planning across health and wealth, and doing the relationship work that earns long-term trust. Empathy, collaboration, and the ability to read a room become competitive skills in the age of abundant intelligence.

Imagination: who redesigns the building

Reimagining an operating model sounds like a programme that touches everything everywhere at once, but it does not have to be. In most organisations there is a small group already doing this work.

Advisers need to find these people in their firms. Put them on the organization's hardest problems, pair them with experienced leaders, and listen to them, even when the questions are uncomfortable.

This is also where our industry has its most important reimagination to do. Only 9% of UK adults have a financial adviser. Around 18% of advisers are women, while women make up about 60% of advised relationships. The advice gap has persisted because the cost to serve mass affluent investors at high quality has been prohibitive, but AI changes the math. The opportunity is not to replace advisers; it is to extend valued advice to the millions who have never had access to it, and to the women who will hold an estimated 34 trillion dollars globally by 2030. That is a market and a purpose at the same time.

Trust: bring people with you

None of this works if there is no trust.

SEI's AI adoption and engagement rates have held above 85%, largely because our enterprise AI initiative began as a trust and empowerment exercise, not a technology rollout. People often learn best in micro-doses; they trust learning more when it comes from peers, and the training that sticks is experiential. By training employees as AI champions and offering fun, interactive we gave people room to build for themselves. Trust is not a soft layer on top of the strategy—it is what lets firms move fast without leaving people behind.

Client expectations are shifting quickly, especially among younger investors and women, who expect advice that is personalised, proactive, and value-driven. AI makes it possible to move from reacting to client requests towards anticipating client needs, aligning portfolios to individual goals and delivering the right insight at the right moment. That is a more continuous, human relationship, not a more automated one.

Time is also of the essence. As trillions pass between generations over the coming decades, firms face real pressure not only to win heirs but to keep them. More than half of inheritors change provider after a wealth transfer. The firms that pair AI-enabled personalisation with stronger human relationships are the ones that will hold those assets across generations.

The real divide

AI will not set firms apart simply because they have adopted it. The divide will be between those who use AI to optimise the model they already have and those that use it to transform the model itself.

The winners will be firms that deploy AI deliberately—preserving what makes them distinctive, strengthening trust, and freeing people from tasks machines can do better so they can focus on the work that creates value and deepens relationships. Above all, they will have the courage to rethink their purpose, not just their processes.

We all know how to keep the power station running. The question for us is whether we are ready to build the art gallery.

The following information can be sourced to Fortune:

• ‘Jevons employment effect’, the paradox that when technology lowers the cost of professional work, demand for that work expands rather than contracts.

The following information can be sourced to McKinsey & Company:

• Advised relationships are projected to rise 28% globally.

The following information can be sourced to NeuronsLab:

• Agentic AI can already cut adviser prospecting time by nearly half.

• Agentic AI can lift net new assets under management by 30 to 40%.

The following information can be sourced to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA):

• Only 9% of UK adults have a financial adviser.

• Around 18% of advisers are women, while women make up about 60% of advised relationships.

The following information can be sourced to McKinsey & Company:

• Women will hold an estimated $34 trillion in assets globally by 2030.

The following information can be sourced to Natixis Investment Managers:

• More than half of inheritors change provider after a wealth transfer.