Advisers of the future
And when it comes to advice businesses, there may be pain, but there is potential.
Regarding the pain, McKenna says: "Many people may have to retrain.
"I know paraplanners and advisers have gotten upset when I suggested their jobs are at risk, but it's the cold reality when it comes to the fifth industrial revolution.
"It no longer matters what you know, because there will be an AI that knows more than you. But you will need to know how to phrase the question in the best way possible to get the best outcome from the AI.
"And that is – for knowledge workers, which is what advisers and paraplanners are – a challenge and an opportunity."
He adds that while AI has the power to revolutionise and remove those who fail to see the threat and mitigate it, there is also great potential.
"Once you understand the ethics of AI and how to deploy and manage it, you will see that as firms embrace AI they could shave off days' worth of admin and back office processing time.
"You could even go to a four or three-and-a-half day week in the office and spend more time with clients, or networking, or training, or doing new business prospecting – things that advice bosses want to spend more time doing but can't currently.
"Certainly we could see that within 10 years, and that would be so much better for everyone."
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
This will be the first in a series of CPD articles on FT Adviser on how a rightful use of AI can help businesses across the financial services spectrum. Stay tuned for more on ftadviser.com
