The use of artificial intelligence within advice workflows is gathering significant pace, the findings of Fidelity Adviser Solutions’ latest IFA DNA study show.
Meeting transcription and note generation remains the most common use case with 48% of advisers using or implementing AI for this purpose, up from 25% in 2025.
Adoption for report personalisation has also risen sharply from 15% to 42% in a year, while supporting suitability assessments and reporting has increased from 11% to 40%.
The study found that advisers at firms with six or more client-facing advisers are more than twice as likely to be using or implementing AI for meeting transcription and note generation (72%) as those at firms with five or fewer advisers (31%).
A similar gap is seen within report personalisation (63% versus 27%) and suitability assessment and reporting (62% versus 24%).
Paul Richards, head of adviser distribution at Fidelity Adviser Solutions, said: “AI has already moved into the day-to-day advice process. In the space of a year, we have seen a significant increase in the number of advisers whose firms are using or implementing AI not only for meeting notes, but for report personalisation, suitability, and a much wider range of workflows.
“The opportunity is not to replace the adviser, but to create more capacity for the parts of the job where human judgement, conversation and relationships matter most. Advisers increasingly see AI as a way to spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time with clients.”
Almost three quarters (71%) of advisers agree AI will help them spend more time on client-facing work and less time on repetitive tasks over the next three years. At the same time, 69% believe it will increase the importance of human judgement and emotional intelligence, while two thirds (66%) expect the importance of face-to-face interaction with clients to increase.
Looking ahead, 72% of advisers anticipate AI will have a positive impact on their role, up from 64% in 2025, while the proportion expecting a negative impact has fallen from 12% to 9%.
As a result, nearly a third (31%) of advisers say effective use of AI tools will be among the most important skills over the next three years, close to technical expertise at 35%, although interpersonal and communication skills still rank highest at 51%.
However, despite AI’s growing popularity, a lack of trust in outputs continues to pose a barrier to greater use, with 31% of advisers citing this. This figure rises to 36% among firms with five or fewer client-facing advisers, compared with 22% at firms with six or more.
The study also revealed compliance or regulatory concerns, with 27% of advisers listing this as a barrier, while 24% cited data security and privacy concerns.
Navigating AI development and implementation has also risen up advisers’ list of business challenges, with 25% now citing it as a top challenge, up from 15% last year.
Richards added: “The growth in adoption does not mean the challenges have disappeared. Trust, regulation, and data security all need to be addressed properly.
“For advice firms, the next stage will be about turning growing enthusiasm for AI into effective implementation. As the technology becomes a more established part of advisers’ working lives, firms will need to think carefully about where it can add genuine value while maintaining the trust and human connection at the heart of financial advice.”
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