We know we are in the midst of an artificial intelligence revolution, which, alongside the sustainability revolution, is contributing to a period of significant upheaval. Until recently, though, the potential for the technology to transform our daily lives felt like it lay somewhere in the future.
The rapid rise of ChatGPT has changed that. The chatbot, made publicly available by owner OpenAI, is estimated to have reached 100mn users in just two months – the fastest growth for a consumer application in history.
By comparison, it took TikTok nine months and Instagram two and half years to reach the same level, according to data from Sensor Tower.
Little wonder that people in professions from journalism to medicine, computer programming to financial advice, are wondering if AI is going to replace them.
I would be looking at how I could use it to take some of the slack.Why has the uptake been so fast, and why does it seem to herald a future that is closer than we thought? It’s because, for the first time, the technology feels… good.
With fairly limited training, ChatGPT has much more of a human feel than previous examples; from virtual assistants such as Alexa and Siri to the customer service chatbots that often seem only to compound the customer’s frustration.
Trying it myself, I asked various questions of the kind a client might ask an adviser. In its responses, ChatGPT steered clear of trying to give personal advice, but provided a wide-ranging summary of the things someone in the position I set out should think about. For a technology that, even with 100mn users, is in its infancy, it was impressive.
Unlike previous AI technologies I have encountered, it showed its workings and explained its limitations: not 'you should invest in a pension – this one' but 'if the following things are true, you should consider investing in a pension, taking into consideration X, Y and Z'.
This felt like a step forward from the black-box decisioning that has driven some of the ethics concerns about AI – the embedded bias in AI technology used in the US justice system, for example.
It is already clear that AI technology, as it is trained in specific industry contexts, will have very wide applicability. Just in the last week or so, I had a call with someone in San Francisco who used an AI to listen to our conversation and produce a summary.
Why do people use financial advisers? Is it because they need the technically ‘right’ answer? Or is it because self-reflection is challenging?I read about magic circle law firm Allen & Overy introducing an AI chatbot to help its lawyers with tasks such as contract analysis and due diligence. I heard from a top marketing organisation in the US that its new AI-generated newsletters are vastly outperforming the old ones, which were written by humans.
And on the news I saw the physicist Stephen Thaler, who is heading to the UK Supreme Court to seek a ruling that his AI can be listed as the patent holder for inventions it creates.
This suggests the potential for AI not only to pull together technical information and produce persuasive content, but to have ideas and to solve problems that are much more complex, arguably, than financial advice.
On the other side of the argument: why do people use financial advisers? Is it because they need the technically ‘right’ answer, which increasingly for many mainstream situations they can find online and have been able to for a long time?
Or is it because self-reflection is challenging, knowing what you really want and need is hard, and acting on that knowledge is even harder? And because most people who grow, in most walks of life, use a human coach in one form or another – whether that’s a teacher, a mentor, a therapist, a sports trainer or a business coach.
I would be laser-focused on client relationships, on building coaching capabilities and deeper empathy in my team.With the era of product sales behind us, the role of the adviser today is to be that coach: the person who helps you understand yourself and your needs and supports you to take the necessary action.
As the robo-advisers have demonstrated, technically correct answers are not the issue. Rather, it is about getting people to take action because you are their trusted coach and you hold them to account.
What would I be doing about AI if I ran an advice firm? I would be looking at how I could use it to take some of the slack: to do some of the tasks of the business more quickly and cheaply, with a corresponding boost to productivity.
And then I would be laser-focused on client relationships, on building coaching capabilities and deeper empathy in my team. Because in an AI world, what will set firms apart is being human.
Ben Goss is chief executive of Dynamic Planner
