Having always been accustomed to operating out of office and without being able to count on a branch or a physical presence in the area, financial advisors have always been the first to adopt every new thing and innovation that could facilitate their work.

Today the news is represented by generative Artificial Intelligence and many are wondering how this will impact the work of financial consultancy professionals.

Artificial Intelligence will allow financial advisors to optimize their time and dedicate it mainly to activities with greater added value, i.e. client management.

If it is true that at least 50% of the time of professionals who work in banks is dedicated to bureaucratic and administrative activities, the same activities require just under 30% of the time of financial consultants, therefore a significant difference which partly explains the greater proactivity of consultants financial in customer management.

Having to invest half or even just a third of your time in activities that divert attention from the customer is increasingly less acceptable, especially for front office figures.

Artificial Intelligence, if well-known and applied, can produce beneficial effects in terms of efficiency and effectiveness in the management of back office activities.

Let’s think about the management activities of repetitive and recurring procedures, the monitoring of risk management activities and in general all the operations which, if appropriately classified and ordered, can be systematized and resolved with Artificial Intelligence.

However, the real added value of Artificial Intelligence could also be something else. Let’s imagine we could segment financial advisors based on their aptitudes, into attackers, defenders and midfielders.

Likewise, let’s imagine being able to segment a bank’s customers based on the level of delegation, knowledge and interest in the issues that concern the management of their savings and assets and to classify customers into four categories: delegating, controllers, protagonists and partner.

Each of these four types of customers wants to be able to interface with a financial advisor with a different approach.

The combinations between the types of customers and professionals can then also be cross-referenced with socio-demographic variables (gender, age, geographical area, marital status, profession), amount of assets to which the data held by the bank could be added, in terms of products subscribed and assets managed.

Furthermore, the same information could be enriched with variables relating to the greater or lesser satisfaction of customers with respect to the bank, its services and the manager himself.

This is a mass of data and information that not only needs to be processed but which, if appropriately used, can increase the chances of success of any initiative.

It would be a matter of finding the perfect client-consultant combination, fundamental not only for the success of commercial proposition activities but also for the reassignment of dormant clients to individual professionals or individual team members characterized by different aptitudes.

If all this has not been done to date it is also because there was a lack of a tool capable of transforming theory into practice, today this tool exists and it is called Artificial Intelligence.

Nicola Ronchetti

L'articolo INTELLIGENT ADVICE proviene da Finer.

To ensure further years of success, financial advisor networks need today more than ever to retain their best professionals and at the same time attract new ones.

It is therefore essential to understand what are the levers capable of retaining those who are already CF and those that allow attracting new talent also from traditional banks, possibly with a focus on under-represented women in the world of financial consultancy. 

FINER conducted a survey involving a sample of financial advisors and bank employees, with a focus on career paths, personal and professional ambitions and the propensity to change jobs.

In terms of career, CFs are more attracted by an individual growth project, bank employees by company status and remuneration aspects; at a gender level, women are more interested in the creation of a team project and educational growth. 

TCs are interested in managerial positions as long as they are clearly part of a challenging project, but many of them prefer to follow clients rather than coordinate other colleagues.

For bank employees, the obstacles to managerial growth are the scarcity of available positions and the reduction in staff.  For women, the possibility of developing a managerial career clash with poor meritocracy and persistent gender discrimination.

The few female managers are highly appreciated by colleagues above all for their greater listening skills, empathy and ability to establish constructive discussions. The best work results are in fact recorded in teams where the presence of women and men is more balanced.

Even in relationships with clients, women are characterized by these qualities combined with greater calm and less presentation anxiety than their colleagues.

In terms of personal and professional ambitions: TCs declare themselves more competitive and ambitious than most bank employees, who prefer cooperation and the execution of company directives to competition, being less attracted by individual challenges. Women are on average more inclined towards constructive collaboration but with a healthy dose of individual competitiveness.

The propensity to change jobs is higher among bank employees, greater for men than for women; satisfaction with one’s salary level is on average higher among CF, with bank employees and women being more critical.

Among the drivers for company change, the importance of the professional challenge (new network, new goals) stands out for TCs; for employees, remuneration, company equipment, prestige, visibility and management of collaborators; for women, training, work tools and family welfare are especially important.

CF and bank employees have a different DNA developed very different work environments for prospects of professional and personal growth and fulfillment.

When recruiting and retaining, rather than homogeneous proposals, it is essential to know each professional thoroughly and individually, therefore calibrating the job offer with their aptitudes, abilities and objectives.

Only after this process will it be possible to offer each individual candidate a real job opportunity which, in all likelihood, will be accepted with mutual satisfaction.

Some banks and networks have understood this well, others decidedly less so.

Nicola Ronchetti

L'articolo NETWORK RECRUITMENT, THE REASONS THAT HOLD YOU BACK AND THOSE THAT PUSH YOU TO CHANGE proviene da Finer.

34% of bankers declare themselves willing to consider the possibility of working as a financial consultant with an agency contract and VAT number in the main financial consultancy networks (source FINER 2024 research for ASSORETI).

There are 265,000 bank employees in Italy, even considering only those who work in direct contact with customers, we should have a few thousand bankers queuing to join the network banks.

The fact that this massive exodus has not occurred, despite declarations of intent, is explained by at least three factors.

The first is a personal factor: the leap from employee to VAT consultant, i.e. to de facto entrepreneur, is not for everyone, it must be internalized, assessed individually and then – fundamentally – it must be incentivized and adequately supported by the bank net.

Networks have made great strides in recent years in terms of their ability to attract top talent, both inside and outside the financial advisory industry. However, there is still ample room for improvement.

At an organizational level, the role of the recruiter should be defined with precise objectives and roles, which does not always happen.

We would then need more ambassadors than mere recruiters, capable of transferring the value of a profession that is not for everyone but is certainly for many who have not yet understood it.

We often find that this task is mainly entrusted to those who, despite being excellent managers, do not have all the skills, sensitivity and ability to attract and offer a real growth prospect to a potential candidate.

Some networks have understood this well and support the growth of the network by also involving the bank’s HR function, as well as external consultants, others seem to be anchored to past logics.    

The second reason is that the bank, for many, is still seen as a safer haven than a network, capable of offering greater economic security, lower risks of failing in one’s job and in any case the right relationship between quality of life and work also thanks to less effort required in customer development.

Then there is a topic linked to corporate welfare which is very relevant especially for women but not only, the bank from this point of view seems to offer greater protection and more extensive guarantees, the networks can still do a lot on this front. To attract and retain the best talent from the world of banking, other less tangible aspects of money must therefore also be considered, such as training and the enhancement of teamwork, dispelling the myth of the lone wolf consultant, which scares the most fearful.

The third reason is linked to the value of the brand of the banks which, on average and with the necessary exceptions, still benefit from higher levels of knowledge, a more solid brand equity and a more reassuring reputation than the average of the networks.

Added to this is the fact that bankers’ satisfaction with their bank, although still lower than that of consultants, is growing compared to last year, certainly thanks to the record results of the banks which have allowed salary increases, a return to greater protagonism also at an international level and a consequent increase in trust in management.

The difficulties in promoting and enhancing the role of the financial advisor, demonstrating the potential of the networks, explaining their evolution over time, supporting and helping to overcome the fears of those who do not dare to make the leap are still today the real barriers to the massive exodus of banking.

Nicola Ronchetti

L'articolo THE EXODUS IS LACKING FROM BANKER TO CONSULTANT proviene da Finer.

Daniel Kahneman, the late Nobel Prize winner for economics in 2002, was the first psychologist to obtain this recognition as the father of behavioral finance.

His work questioned the concept of rationality underlying decision-making processes, overturning the assumptions that had dominated economics for centuries.

In 2011, Kahneman with the bestseller “Thinking, Fast and Slow” presented a complete vision of the mind governed by two systems, one fast and intuitive, the other slow and more rational.

Another psychologist, Richard Thaler, will win the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2017 for his work culminating in the book Nudge, in which he identifies the ways in which distortions in decision-making processes can be corrected by positive conditioning induced by the context.

Two Nobel Prize winners known by all savings management professionals and considered two sacred monsters, but evidently not so sacred as to study their studies well and above all to apply their principles, fruit of years of studies, concretely and in daily activity.

From the research that FINER conducted for EFPA and which involved a sample of professionals (financial consultants, private bankers and banks) and end investors, it emerged that behavioral finance, or rather its principles, are known only by 66% of the first and 17% of the latter.

As if that weren’t enough, among those who declared they knew the principles of behavioral finance, only 34% of professionals and 17% of end investors actually applied them.

The very few professionals and clients who apply the principles of behavioral finance do so almost exclusively (79% and 85%) as a topic of conversation and not in investment choices (21% and 15%).

The paradox is that professionals and their clients who apply the principles of behavioral finance in their investment choices recognize their usefulness in 81% and 75% of cases respectively.

Among the reasons for the recognized usefulness of the application of behavioral finance for professionals and their clients, the greater awareness of choices (81% and 76%), the improvement of the dialogue between consultant-client (69% and 71%), the overcoming of barriers to investing (42% and 59%) and greater serenity and tranquility (33% and 29%).

The six most widespread cognitive errors among Italians are: aversion to losses (82%), the herd effect (75%), inertia, i.e. making decisions on the basis of familiar patterns already experienced (62%), anchoring, i.e. fixation on the first information received (51%), excess confidence (44%) and the attribution error which consists in ascribing credit for choices with a positive outcome to oneself, instead attributing the credit to others fault of those that went badly (38%).

The analysis of the six most widespread cognitive errors among Italians then reveals some interesting implications: there are significant differences between women and men, between those with assets of different sizes, between different generational cohorts.

There is therefore the opportunity to segment current and potential investors in a practical and concrete way, defining for each of them the most correct approach and the characteristics of the ideal professional for them.

All this would allow us to broaden the pool of investors and increase their awareness: so, what are we waiting for to move from theory to practice?

Nicola Ronchetti

L'articolo BEHAVIORAL FINANCE: IF TWO NOBELS SEEM FEW TO YOU proviene da Finer.

Two recent M&A operations by UniCredit and BNP Paribas are highlighting what the most attentive market observers had predicted for some time.

UniCredit, waiting to conquer Commerzbank, consolidates its position in the life sector with the double acquisition of the shares in the two historic joint ventures, with Allianz and CNP, bringing back in house the product factories linked to the branch with higher margins and growth potential in which banks are playing a leading role.

With this operation, UniCredit becomes the fourth operator in the life insurance sector in Italy with almost 8 billion in premiums, the third in bancassurance and the first in unit linked.

The choice that surprised the partners was also facilitated by the Danish Compromise, an accounting principle aimed at facilitating financial conglomerates made up of credit institutions and insurance companies, thanks to which the absorption of capital is extremely more favorable than it was at the time of renewal of the joint ventures.

BNP Paribas acquires AXA Investment Management for 5.1 billion cash, the asset management company of the French insurance giant which has decided to focus solely on the core business of protection.

With this move, the BNP Paribas banking group will manage a total of 1,500 billion euros, the result of the integration of the assets held by AXA IM and BNP Paribas Asset Management, becoming the fourth operator at European level.

An operation that also makes great sense: asset management is a highly profitable and relatively inexpensive activity, which therefore makes sense to take home while keeping assets and profits within the perimeter of the group.

The almost 220 billion in alternative assets of AXA IM (equal to 30% of assets under management) also contributed to inducing BNP Paribas to purchase AXA IM, the majority of which consists of real estate and private debt, ideal for institutional and High Net Worth clients of the BNP Paribas banking group.

Strengthening and bringing product factories in-house, both on the asset management and protection side, will be the mantra of the coming years, when with the lowering of rates, revenues will increasingly depend on income from management commissions and financial consultancy.

It is to be expected that also on the asset management company front, UniCredit will soon land another ace, the joint venture NOVA Investment Management with AZIMUT, which envisages the purchase of the controlling stake, the agreement expiring in 2027, with AMUNDI, the creation of the Onemarkets Funds platform, are clear indications of an announced strategy.

Making Andrea Orcel’s move in the life sector even more effective is the recruitment of one of the most capable and respected managers on the market, Alessandro Santoliquido, head of UniCredit’s insurance business at a pan-European level.

The manager gave himself two years to consolidate UniCredit Vita, focusing on mixed life policies, i.e. not pure investments but with an insurance component combined with dynamic portfolio management.

Also on the BNP Paribas front there is a manager who enjoys the respect and trust of the market with a strong reputation within the French group, Alessandro Pierri, former CEO of Pioneer then sold to AMUNDI, and CEO of BNP Paribas Asset for three years Management.

To implement these strategies destined to change the finance and protection sector, we therefore need capable managers with vision and it seems that at least in this in Italy we are second to none.

Nicola Ronchetti

L'articolo PROTECTION AND ASSET MANAGEMENT: BANKS CLOSE RANKS proviene da Finer.

Il Sole 24 Ore PLUS | October 2024

Behavioral finance is for Nobel Prize winners, but not for Italian financial advisors and their clients. The research carried out by Finer for the Efpa Italia annual meeting, held in recent days in Florence, with the theme «WYSIATI. Finance between reality and prophecy”, shows that only 17% of customers and 66% of professionals say they know what it is about.

The EFPA, a professional body responsible for defining standards and certifying Financial Advisors and Financial Planners, brings together savings professionals, operators and investment services experts in the meeting.

The acronym that gives the Meeting its title refers to the expression “What You See Is All There Is”, which translates as «everything you see is the whole of reality». Expression used by the recently deceased Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman, which indicates a mental shortcut that leads us to believe we have a complete frame of reference on the issues we decide on. And therefore, at the center of the meeting are the opportunities of behavioral finance in the knowledge base of a savings professional.

Nicola Ardente, vice president and director of Efpa Italia, explains the choice of theme as follows: «We are an authoritative body for certifying the skills of financial advisors. We have reached 11,500 certifications and this is an important milestone. Behavioral finance is one of the fundamental topics in the consultant’s knowledge. In Florence we wanted to propose some reflections to think broadly about the impacts of behavioral finance both on the client and on the consultants themselves as operators, to analyze the cognitive limits that often lead to having a limited vision”.

Ruggero Bertelli, from the University of Siena, reiterates: «Looking down, looking only at what you see now, is a mistake. Consultants need to be architects of savers’ choices, explaining that we need to talk about investments rather than savings, that it makes no sense to talk about investments if you don’t have a long horizon, otherwise it’s simple liquidity.”

And Giorgio De Rita of Censis, recalling the title of the event, recalls that prophecy is not a form of fantasy, but looking inside to understand what one can be.

But how is the situation? «The impressive thing that struck us the most – explains Nicola Ronchetti, CEO of Finer – is that although behavioral finance has been talked about for years, few know it and few, both among financial advisors where we have just over 60% who know what it is and even less than 20% among investors. But the most impressive thing is that those few, those who know it among private banks and financial advisors, use it mainly to communicate with customers and not to develop, for example, a portfolio or make an asset allocation.”

Knowledge of behavioral finance, as far as investors are concerned, is more widespread in the following categories of subjects: men, boomers, residents in the North, educated, multi-banked, network customers, with high wealth. For professionals, however, those who have certifications, women, young people, those living in the North, those who are more educated and those with an above-average portfolio are more “ahead”.

Furthermore, according to Finer’s study, the most widespread cognitive errors (loss aversion, herd effect, inertia, anchoring, overconfidence, attribution errors) highlight significant differences by gender, age and wealth. For example, loss aversion is the element that records the highest number of findings for almost all ages, except in generation Z (1997-2012) where the herd effect exceeds loss aversion and in millennials (1980 -1996) where the two values ​​are very close. Overconfidence is not at the top of the list (but this could also be an effect of excess confidence, editorial note).

Moving on to the distribution of these biases by size of assets, it appears that the mass market sector is more “deviated” by the herd effect than by aversion to losses, a situation that is reversed in the case of affluent and “private-Hnwi”, who they actually have more to lose. These differences, according to Finer, offer the opportunity to segment current and potential investors in a practical and concrete way.

And Ronchetti adds: «And this also has enormous potential in the ability to convert the enormous liquid assets that Italians still have and which they do not invest for fear of approaching assets outside the traditional ones, namely real estate and public debt securities. ».

Antonio Criscione

L'articolo CONSULTANTS: BEHAVIORAL FINANCE IS UNDERUSED proviene da Finer.

The financial consultancy sector grows every year at impressive rates, both in absolute terms and compared to other neighboring sectors which show decidedly more sluggish growth trends.

Considering the current market shares conquered by financial advisors – today equal to 20% of total investors and 40% of private ones – there are broad growth prospects and there is room for at least another 7,000 professionals.   

Yet the networks struggle to attract new talent from the banking sector or other sectors and, in the absence of alternatives, to grow they are forced to recruit professionals from other networks in a game that – for the sector – is zero-sum.

Going from employee to financial advisor would allow you to increase your gross annual salary by five to ten times, which in the best-case scenario varies between fifty thousand and seventy thousand Euros.

To recruit a financial advisor from a competing network, there are companies willing to offer an incentive that sometimes exceeds 4% of the assets managed by the individual professional, which means an incentive to change the network quantifiable in millions of Euros.  

If the remuneration aspect is therefore a necessary but not sufficient condition for attracting new talent, what else is needed to induce a bank employee to become a financial advisor or someone who is already one to choose another network?

To answer this question there is some empirical evidence that has emerged both from the FINER research carried out for ASSORETI and presented in April at the Salone del Risparmio 2024, and from the most recent continuous monitoring conducted by FINER.

For the over five thousand professionals interviewed – selected from financial consultants, private bankers and bank managers of the main banks and networks – the relevance of the image and reputation of the bank or network in evaluating a possible change of colors emerges unequivocally.

This empirical evidence is further confirmed by cross-referencing the recruitment data communicated by the networks – number of incoming professionals – with those that quantify the value of their image monitored by FINER.

A direct statistical correlation emerges from the analysis: the top networks in terms of number of consultants recruited in the last twelve months correspond almost exactly – also in terms of ranking – to the top networks that enjoy an above-average image and reputation.

Added to this is the fact that the image and reputation of the banks and networks perceived by those who work there, together with their satisfaction, are a powerful propellant capable of increasing the so-called retention, i.e. the ability to retain and retain consultants of your bank.

Furthermore, what applies to customers also applies to consultants: acquiring a new consultant costs on average five times more than retaining and retaining one who already works in the bank.

It might seem like a simple thing, but it isn’t: to build a good image and a solid reputation – internal and external – it takes years of commitment, while it only takes a moment to destroy it.

Almost all networks and banks are very clear about the importance of their image both for customers and for those who work there, some start with a solid position income, others younger ones have built it in more recent times.

The same principle applies to all of them: image was more effective than money in making proselytes – both among clients and professionals.

Nicola Ronchetti

L'articolo FINANCIAL ADVICE WHEN MONEY IS NOT EVERYTHING proviene da Finer.

The success of financial consultancy in Italy is due to the professionals who are the real pivots of this sector.

One of the secrets of the success of this profession is the ability to combine the function and support of the company (in our case the network/principal), typical of all organized business communities, with a parallel entrepreneurial drive that arises at an individual level from the individual professional (the financial advisor).

This drive leads financial advisors to always question themselves by investing on a personal level in their work and in continuous training as only the best freelancers (doctors, lawyers, architects) know and can do.

Therefore, the value of skills certification takes on an increasing value for financial advisors and on average higher than that attributed by other professionals.

The numbers of EFPA (European Financial Advisor Association) tell us this, which has seen certified professionals grow exponentially in recent years.

EFPA has been able to seize all the market opportunities before and better than others, enhancing the three standard certifications (in ascending order EIP, EFA and EFP) but also expanding the offer to specialist ones.

The specialist certifications embrace all the most current and relevant areas: ESG (ESG Advisor and Expert), protection (European Insurance Specialist), pension (EPS), financial planning and portfolio analysis (PPF and TAP), estate and succession planning (PPS), private markets (PMK), unconventional investments (UIS), economics and finance (EFD), behavioral finance (FBA) and Artificial Intelligence (EAI).

The extraordinary results achieved by EFPA in terms of increase in certified professionals, which went from 5,758 in 2017 to the current 11,569 (as of 8/1/24), are a clear testimony to the value that savings professionals (financial and banking consultants) give to certification of skills.

Further confirmation of the increased value of skills certification comes from the comparison of the results of research conducted by FINER in 2024 with the data of a similar research conducted by the undersigned in 2011 for EFPA.

Among customers, the percentage of those who consider it very important that their financial advisor is certified according to standards recognized at European level has increased from 41% in 2011 to 66% in 2024.

In 2011, 23% of non-EFPA certified professionals said they were considering becoming certified, in 2024 this has grown to 34%.

Among EFPA certified professionals in 2011 only 9% believed that certification was also very important for their clients, in 2024 it will be 19%.

In 2011, only 18% of certified professionals declared that they would communicate to their clients that they would have achieved EFPA certification in 2024, up to 36%.

Also in 2011, 61% of certified professionals believed that EFPA certification was very important for their profession, in 2024 this will reach 85%.

It is very nice to see that more and more financial advisors are placing continuous training and the consequent certification of the skills acquired at the center of their agenda.

Investing in yourself and your profession is a guarantee of an increasingly satisfying future for consultants and their clients.

Nicola Ronchetti

L'articolo THE VALUE OF CERTIFICATION proviene da Finer.

The networks’ half-yearly reports confirmed a healthy and continuously growing industry with even more positive results (on average +10%) compared to a year ago.

Of course, interest rates have given a little help, especially to those network banks most characterized by loans – loans and mortgages to customers – with the European Central Bank paying customers’ interest-free deposits a sumptuous 3.75% to the custodian banks.

The nascent TNB (The New Bank) of AZIMUT (the only network among the big ones not to have a banking license) also confirms that having a bank is a godsend with these rates: to the challenge of creating a fintech that fully valorizes the Group founded by Pietro Giuliani also has the objective of seizing the opportunities that positive rates are giving and will give for the next few years.

But beyond the exogenous factors, the fact is that the networks of financial advisors represent excellence in the banking panorama, their service model is the winning one, representing the right combination of cutting-edge digital platforms and professionals at customer service.

And it is precisely they, the financial consultants, who are the true architects of the success of the networks: their satisfaction, their sense of belonging and therefore the ability – on the part of those who guide them – to make them feel part of a project and a team are the factors that determine the success of their own networks.

The motivation of financial advisors is fueled daily by network managers and top figures, helping to give the emotional charge necessary to achieve increasingly challenging objectives.

It is interesting to note the existence of a correlation between the satisfaction of financial advisors and the financial results of the networks: the networks with the most satisfied advisors on average record the best results, both in terms of collection and margins.

Over twenty years of research unequivocally demonstrate a mathematical correlation between financial advisor satisfaction and the economic and financial results of the networks to which they belong.

This correlation, which can be found in almost all organizations, is certainly greater than others that operate in the same sector (traditional banks, financial and asset management companies), as the historical series of the last two decades of analysis of customer satisfaction tell us. CF.

This year too we have had a pleasant confirmation: the financial results of the networks’ half-yearly reports find empirical confirmation in the numbers of the average satisfaction of the financial advisors interviewed as part of the annual FINER CF Explorer monitoring which involved over 5,000 professionals from the 15 networks they represent over 95% of the market.

In particular, overall satisfaction, sense of belonging and involvement are growing on average by + 10% compared to last year.

The satisfaction of financial advisors and the financial results of the networks to which they belong are like parallel convergences: apparently disjoined but united by the same trajectory and the same dynamics.

Investing in the involvement and satisfaction of your financial advisors is therefore the mantra that simultaneously guarantees the ability to retain and attract the best talent and achieve the best economic returns.

Evidently those who lead the networks understood this earlier and better than others.

Nicola Ronchetti

L'articolo SEMI-ANNUAL REPORTS AND CF SATISFACTION: PARALLEL CONVERGENCIES proviene da Finer.

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

L'articolo FINANCIAL ADVICE AND DIGITAL TRANSITION: HUNT FOR TALENT proviene da Finer.