The use of artificial intelligence has more than doubled among advice professionals over the past 12 months, says the lang cat.
Findings from the firm’s latest State of the Advice Nation report show that 60% of advisers use AI, rising from 29% in last year’s report. The technology is particularly popular among larger firms, with assets under management in excess of £1 billion, where usage is at 88%.
Advice professionals ranked AI as amongst the most important areas of change in the industry, with 81% agreeing the technology was more important to their business in 2025. Just under a quarter (24%) see it as the tech that made the biggest difference to their business last year, garnering the second highest share of the vote behind cashflow modelling at 26%.
However, the report also highlighted several challenges, with nearly half (46%) of advisers citing trust in outputs as a primary issue, while 40% pointed to compliance and regulatory concerns.
While the majority of firms view AI as an opportunity, advisers also expressed caution around using it for client recommendations. When asked about comfort levels with AI-generated recommendations in client-facing advice, respondents scored an average 4.1 out of 10, with smaller firms scoring 3.5 and larger firms, with AUM of £250-£500 million, scoring higher confidence levels at 6.5.
Steve Nelson, insight director at the lang cat, said: “AI discourse is everywhere and with SOTAN, we wanted to make sure we understood how it was affecting the advice sector. What is clear is there is an appetite and an application for its use within advice firms, with usage doubling from last year.”
Nelson said firms find AI useful for administration, meeting notes, data handling and report drafting.
He continued: “Where we are seeing nervousness around adoption, despite AI being available, affordable and increasingly capable, is in a lack of regulatory frameworks to ease adviser’s minds where there are understandable concerns around regulation and compliance.
“Firms lack shared norms around acceptable use and if there was more direction in this area, this may lead to greater levels of comfort in adoption.
“It is also worth noting that over a third registered that they were uncomfortable on some level with data security when using AI in financial advice. As much as we’re seeing the welcoming of innovation, it’s important that development doesn’t come at the expense of other critical elements like data security.
“This is obviously all moving at a fast pace, but it certainly looks like AI in one way, shape or form will continue to play a role in advice.”
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