Can GenAI Replace Financial Advisors?

Last year, Eidosmedia examined the pros and cons of emerging AI-assisted financial advising. Our verdict was that AI had the potential to democratize the wealth management sector, but the technology was “not yet up to the task of fully replacing a skilled financial advisor.”

Does our assessment still hold water a year later? Let’s take a closer look at the current state of generative AI (GenAI) for financial advice.

AI in wealth management - threat or opportunity?

In February 2026, St James’s Place, Britain’s largest wealth management group, saw its shares tumble 13%. AJ Bell’s shares fell 8% while others lost more than 5%. Across the pond in the U.S., Charles Schwab dipped 3.8%. Why? All because U.S.-based Altruist launched a tool to assist financial advisers to personalize their clients’ tax strategies.

The Financial Times (FT) reported, “Los Angeles-based Altruist said on Tuesday its new planning tool could help create personalised tax strategies ‘within minutes’ by analysing tax returns, payslips and meeting notes. It could also explore ‘what-if’ scenarios, including property sales or retirement transitions.”

The FT chalked the falling stocks up to “spooked investors, sparking fears about how the technology might undermine the traditional industry.” Key stakeholders were quick to quell such fears. Paul Manduca, chair of St James’s Place, dismissed the decline as “‘surprising and almost certainly an overreaction,’” and reassured investors that “‘face-to-face advice is in high demand in a fast-changing world.’” While Rae Maile, an analyst at Panmure Liberum, issued the rebuttal: “robo-advice had existed for some time and that providers solely using such models had failed.”

AI is already at work in wealth management

Pushback against the perceived threat of AI from major financial firms is to be expected, but it does not paint a complete picture. A study conducted by Advisor360° found that 74% of the 300 U.S.-based financial institutions they surveyed already used AI to some extent, indicating that the wealth management sector is, in fact, open to support from AI tools.

Edward Jones, one of the largest wealth management firms in the U.S., is just one example of a high-profile player leveraging AI. In March 2026, another Financial Times report revealed that Edward Jones “has invested in digital and AI platforms, including a company called Waterlily, which draws on data sets to allow users to predict how much long-term care could be required for individuals and their families in the context of increasing longevity.”

But while shareholders panic and stakeholders experiment, there is one clear point of consensus: AI, at least in the financial sector, is not going to replace the need for human insight — and oversight — any time soon.

Trust is non-negotiable

The findings from Advisor360° are compelling, but there is a critical caveat to take into account: 93% of the 300 firms surveyed declared that “retaining control over decisions and advice when using AI tools is non-negotiable.”

Additionally, 39% of those surveyed “want proof that AI technology has been tested by peers before allowing it to operate without oversight,” and “34% say compliance approval is a prerequisite to relinquishing control.”

Most significantly, “only 14% of advisors currently use AI to help identify investment opportunities, and just 3% rely on AI-generated financial recommendations.”

So, how exactly is AI being used to support financial advisors?

AI as accelerator and time-saver

According to Advisor360°, AI is most commonly used for administrative tasks, “including generating meeting summaries and notes (31%), updating CRM records (28%), preparing for client meetings (26%), and managing routine client communications (25%).”

Wealth.com also makes the case for AI’s role in saving time by accelerating data-driven tasks. “Instead of spending hours pulling insights out of documents, advisors spend minutes validating AI surfaced insights, then invest the reclaimed time where it actually moves outcomes, in client conversations and strategic guidance.”

The key here is to balance AI efficiency with human oversight. “Just as a portfolio manager must understand markets even if technology executes the trades, an advisor must understand estate, tax, and planning fundamentals even if AI accelerates analysis,” says Wealth.com. “AI can accelerate good judgment. It cannot replace it.”

Edward Jones’ CEO, Penny Pennington, echoed this sentiment in an interview with the FT: “...human advice is ‘the part that focuses on discernment, judgment, ethics, understanding — deeply understanding — the values of a family, because those values then accrue to how that family wants to set up their investments, wants to manage their money, wants to transfer that money intergenerationally.’”

Even executives at AI companies share the sentiment that AI can only succeed in finance with human oversight. Citywire reports that Peter Nolan, an executive at Anthropic — the engine responsible for the LLM Claude — spoke at a panel during Future Proof’s Citywide conference and stated in no uncertain terms: “advisors are ‘the last role’ that would be replaced by AI.”

However, Nolan did make a case for AI “[augmenting] the profession…around any tasks or responsibilities advisors can ‘potentially outsource so that you can focus more time on developing relationships and building trust.’”

Once again, trust is key. And for now, trust is a solely human provenance.

AI will 'raise the bar' in wealth management

In the year since we last wrote about AI’s emerging role in the world of financial advice, much has remained the same — namely, the need for human validation and oversight.

Right now, AI’s role is relegated to data-processing and efficiency-driven tasks, but according to Altruist founder Jason Wenk (as reported by FT), AI has the potential to elevate the financial services industry by challenging run of the mill advisors to up their game: “‘[AI] expands what a single adviser can handle, raises the bar on outcomes and makes average advice a lot harder to justify.’”

On the other hand, Panmure Liberum analyst Rae Maile asserts that AI will never be able to replicate the trusting, personal relationships customers rely on — especially the most wealthy ones. “‘The really wealthy will always want a personal service,’” Maile told FT.

Only time will tell if AI can gain enough sophistication and reputation to replicate the personal insights the wealthy rely on. But for lower tier financial advisors, and individuals looking to invest on their own, AI certainly has the potential to save time, support processes, and even improve wealth management strategies. Only one thing seems certain; as the technology continues to evolve, AI is poised to carve out a larger place for itself in the dynamic world of wealth management.

About Eidosmedia

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Its products are used by large news-media groups for print and digital publishing and by financial service firms for the creation and dissemination of research and guidance.

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