AI is everywhere in wealth management: board agendas, strategy decks, vendor roadmaps. But while ambition is accelerating, the technology foundations beneath it often aren’t ready.
In our recent roundtable with Milan Patel (FA Solutions) and Sharmil Patwa (Opus Una), participants agreed on one thing: AI is exposing existing weaknesses, not creating new ones.
Legacy Technology is Holding Firms Back
Most firms are still running on ageing platforms, fragmented data and operating models built long before AI was a consideration. The result? AI tools that work in isolation but fail to integrate into core systems.
Firms Are Prioritising Productivity and Client Experience
Participants highlighted three areas where AI is already delivering value:
- Adviser productivity
- Client personalisation
- Investment decision support
Operational efficiency ranked lower — even though it’s often the fastest route to measurable ROI.
Integration is Now the Hardest Part
The challenge isn’t generating AI outputs. It’s embedding them into legacy estates without creating parallel processes. Many firms are unintentionally building AI silos that increase complexity rather than reduce it.
Governance is Becoming a Critical Enabler
Participants agreed that AI requires stronger oversight of:
- Data quality
- Model explainability
- Cybersecurity
- Regulatory compliance
- Vendor resilience
Without trust, users revert to manual processes, and AI adoption stalls.
Modernisation is No Longer Optional
Incremental upgrades won’t close the gap. Firms are beginning to invest in modern technology environments that can support AI over the long term.
The Bottom Line
AI is an accelerator. It amplifies whatever foundations already exist.
- Strong foundations → scalable AI
- Weak foundations → scaled inefficiency
The firms that win will be those that modernise first, then scale AI, not the other way around.