Damian Zhang, paraplanner, Quilter Cheviot, has been delving into the potential application of AI in the paraplanning role – where it is useful, where it’s not and where the risks lie.
Classic movies have had a tendency to depict what future life looks like in technological terms, to varying degrees of fantasy. Whether it’s Blade Runner, The Terminator or The Matrix, the entertainment world has loved to envisage what would happen in the future and how technology could evolve, for better and for worse.
Fast forward to the present, and real, day and it appears we are now seemingly on the precipice of a new world. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has well and truly entered our lives, and as such it is becoming an increasingly used and beneficial tool of the workplace.
Those classic movies are clearly not going to be replicated, but AI has developed at breakneck speed that it is now impossible to ignore. It has become more complex and sophisticated, developing from chat bots hosted on web pages to becoming the new way to search for information, and even create exciting and engaging content.
AI has now very much made it into the workplace, particularly for paraplanners. It has a number of potentially useful applications, from drafting parts of suitability reports to interpreting information from providers and internal documents. It is able to help with analysing information we feed it and provide responses in a readable format, enabling more time for value-add activities and robust discussion between paraplanners and financial planners.
There are many different variations of AI, such as Microsoft’s Copilot, Chat GPT and Google’s Gemini. However, they are very similar in how they operate and crucially rely on one thing – the information you provide. AI is effectively an assistant who is there to make your mundane tasks easier and letting you as a paraplanner focus on the more complex aspects. It is not smart enough to take over what is a vitally important role, but there are a number of things you can do to make it smarter and teach it, so you are getting the most out of it.
For example, many AI tools can now “remember” settings, meaning that if you ask it to write in a particular house style or company tone and tell it to remember this in its output, it will use that style in future content when you ask it to write in that style, reducing the amount of time needed to edit or format documents you have asked AI to produce.
These time savers are everywhere once you scratch the surface of your chosen AI tool. For example, in Copilot – Quilter’s AI tool of choice – you can attach a copy of a fact find and ask if it can spot any inconsistencies. Once it has done that you can then instruct it to repeat those steps in future. Not only have you saved time identifying inconsistencies in the fact find, but you can repeat this process in seconds rather than writing another detailed prompt.
Finally, these tools can become extensions of your businesses and learn and understand your internal procedures in great detail. Suitability reports and recommendations can be checked against your internal procedures based simply on the guidance being attached alongside the suitability report in the prompt.
The possibilities are truly endless, but it does not come without risks. You will still need to do your due diligence and sense check any content your AI tool has provided. This is critical for advice to proceed, and to ensure clients can trust the recommendations provided by the financial planner and the wider firm.
For team leaders there are a number of safeguarding issues to consider. Not all AI programmes come with safeguarding features, so it is crucial you kick the tyres on any software you choose to use. Part of this is the data that you feed into the AI tool – how secure is it? Will that data remain available just to your company or could it be used externally? Finally, structured internal processes need to be put in place to ensure that any reputational risk is considered and mitigated against. At the end of the day, you remain responsible for the use of any AI output.
The world of AI can seem like a scary place, but its benefits are vast. Hollywood may see AI as a source of nefarious forces for our entertainment, but in the working world it has already been transformative. AI gives paraplanners the opportunity to enhance their output and genuinely improve the overall advice process.
Main image: markus-spiske-iar-afB0QQw-unsplash
