Economy | August 2024
The digital transition in the networks of financial advisors has always occurred naturally, without trauma because since their inception these entities have had the only option to ride innovations.
In the 80s, financial advisors were the first to adopt portable telephones that were very heavy and bulky but very useful for an itinerant profession that could not count on a physical presence in the area.
Then we know how it went, what seemed like a limit was transformed into an extraordinary competitive advantage, giving the financial advisor profession an edge in the face of the advance of banking desertification and the digital wave that has turned the banking world upside down.
Today, to bank successfully, you must be able to count on the right mix of digital platforms/quality professionals, which has always been the DNA of the networks.
After the Internet revolution, today the novelty seems to be represented by Artificial Intelligence, with investments estimated at 6 billion dollars by 2024 to purchase Generative AI programs and services and which will rise to 85 billion dollars in 2030.
Beyond these impressive numbers, the feeling of the most qualified operators is that at this moment the industry is not ready to implement AI in its full execution within banking platforms, the traditional banking system in fact still on average still has large problems in digitalization.
There are also some facts that should be considered. The first is that AI will only be able to give its best to those who have very efficient access to all databases, whereas today they are fragmented into different systems.
Secondly, it is essential to develop and own your own technology and this is not the case for almost the entire banking industry.
Third, AI is certainly a revolution that promises to be even more disruptive than those of the past and just as not all companies managed to grasp the challenge of the Internet in 2000, it is likely that the same will happen for AI too: the investments required are enormous and the concrete applications are still unclear.
In this context, it is of fundamental importance to recruit talent and invest in those who have the skills to unleash the potential of AI. With these people, new platforms and new systems must be designed that integrate with existing ones.
The apparent paradox lies precisely in this: in order to fully exploit the potential of Artificial Intelligence, which alone goes nowhere, today more than ever we need people who know and manage its potential by applying it where and when it is needed.
For this reason, their role will not be relegated to the rear or in IT functions but as staff in the control room of the bank.
We are therefore desperately looking for data scientists, machine learning experts who, far from being relegated to their ivory towers, are able to communicate with management, acting as cultural mediators between Artificial Intelligence and human intelligence.
This is the biggest challenge, few have fully understood it, among these there are once again financial advisors: 66% do not fear AI but who among the competitors will be able to use it better by recruiting the best talent. The hunt is therefore on.
Nicola Ronchetti