Brian Wallheimer is editor-in-chief of Financial Planning. He sat down with The FR guest contributor Grace Keith Rodriguez, Caliber Corporate Advisers CEO, to discuss the upcoming ADVISE AI conference that is taking place on October 9-10 at Encore Las Vegas.

What’s different about this year’s ADVISE AI conference compared to the INVEST conference Financial Planning produced in years past?

This year’s conference is very different. There are similarities, of course, in that it is a tech conference, but in the past, INVEST was really focused on tech decision makers. ADVISE AI is focused on the people who can and will use AI in wealth management, particularly the financial advisors who will use these tools. We’re excited to be the first AI-only conference in the wealth management industry. 

We’ll have a lot of inspirational moments and exciting speeches, but at the end of the day, what I really hope is that people will walk away from this conference with two or three ideas about how they can use AI to free up time, become more efficient, enhance their client relationships, find new clients, market themselves, ensure their marketing materials are compliant and more. I think the best conferences provide attendees with a few ideas on how they can improve their business.

Picking up on that theme, how big of an impact do you think AI is having on the financial advisory industry?

Quite big! We quickly saw that wealth management professionals were going to embrace AI as a tool to enhance what they love about the industry: helping people invest for their future. This has always been a relationship business—people still want to talk to a human being—so I expect advisors to take advantage of opportunities to automate and expedite tasks so they can have more time cultivating relationships. 

Of course, there are still questions about how AI will be implemented by the industry. What will the regulatory landscape look like? How and what should advisors tell clients about their use of the tool?  I think there is going to be a cohort of advisors who try a bunch of things with AI right away. Some will work and others won’t, but in a few years they’ll be in a better position than others to leverage the tool to attract and retain clients.

Everyone's talking about the great wealth transfer. It's really affecting the way advisors need to think about their future business. Now we're talking about a lot of money shifting to a younger generation who think about money in different ways and have vastly different expectations about decision making—and those folks need to feel seen and heard in these conversations. 

AI creates an opportunity for some advisors to improve and expand their approach to the great wealth transfer. Advisors who are able to automate or expedite certain tasks, and use that time to advise their clients, build relationships with their clients’ children, and demonstrate that they can put a plan in place, will win. They will also satisfy the nonmonetary requirements of millennials and younger generations.

There is a lot of hype about what AI can do for financial advisors. How can this event help industry folks separate the signal from the noise?

Wealth management tech tends to be adopted more slowly, which isn’t surprising when you consider the average financial advisor is 60 years old, and often those being advised are on the older side, too. 

A lot of firms are still focused on developing wealth management apps but, in my opinion, they should be focused on the bigger picture and the kinds of questions that advisors have about the technology. Questions like: How can I effectively use AI? How do I make sure I don't scare my clients? How do I make sure I connect with my clients the right ways, and not undermine the connection I’ve spent my career developing? That’s one of the biggest fears.

I think some of our attendees already will be gung ho on AI and will be eager to learn more so they can take the next step. But I also think we’re going to have attendees who are still trying to figure this out, and I think we have something for all of them. If you look at our advisory committee, if you look at the names of people who are speaking on these panels, this really is a who's who of people in tech and AI. We've got people from the biggest companies that are developing technologies, and they are really going to make a difference for wealth management and financial advisors.

As an editor focused on wealthtech, what do you hope to get out of this event?

I’m really looking forward to the session that will feature a panel discussion with advisors who will be talking about how they’re using AI and noting what’s worked, what hasn’t and what they’ve tried along the way. Even if not all of our attendees are ready to jump in and start using something as simple as an AI note taker, at least they can walk away feeling more educated about what is out there for them to consider.

I’m also looking forward to our first-ever Innovation Awards where we’ll be handing out nine awards across marketing, tech and other areas, applauding tech companies that are developing AI-centered wealthtech and wealth management firms that are ahead of the tech game. We’ll also be announcing our two innovators of the year live at the awards ceremony. 

What other trends in wealth management and wealthtech should we be paying attention to, especially related to the topics on the agenda?

Arizent did research on AI and financial advisors earlier this year, showing that more than 60% of financial advisors who answered the survey are looking to automate tasks and efficiencies. Right now, they’re using AI for things like fact checking, routine inquiries, marketing and promotion. Some of our speakers will be talking about using AI for a view of investor sentiment, and we’re seeing a number of ETFs being created based on this. 

There’s also a lot of talk about the importance of data. At the end of the day, these things don't work if you aren't putting in good and clean data. 

What’s most interesting to you about being involved in designing events, like ADVISE AI, for the field that you cover as an editor?

I'm not a conference organizer by trade. I'm an editorial guy. I'm excited about this being a conference for financial advisors, because honestly, that's who we're writing for every day. AI is complicated and messy, so being able to explain it in a way that will help advisors become more comfortable with it is really gratifying. 

There are also great opportunities for attendees to explore demos in the exhibit hall by hearing from people who are using AI. Participants can also knock around ideas over a beer at cocktail hour or coffee before panels. There’s so much to learn!