AI for Financial Advisors: Scale Smarter, Not Harder
It is hard to open a business publication right now without running into a story about artificial intelligence. AI is transforming industries, disrupting business models, and changing the nature of work as we know it. Financial services is no exception, and for independent RIAs and wealth management firms, the conversation has gotten loud enough that ignoring it is no longer a neutral position. Most of the coverage focuses on what AI can do in theory, while the more useful question for advisors right now is what it is actually doing in practice.
The adoption numbers look strong on the surface. According to a 2025 Charles Schwab study, 63% of independent RIAs are now using AI tools in some capacity, more than double the rate from 2023. But dig a little deeper and you find that only about one in ten of those same advisors have actually woven AI into their broader business strategy. The rest are mostly using it to take meeting notes.
The gap between adopting AI and actually using it well is where the real opportunity lives. And right now, most firms are leaving it wide open. For advisory firms thinking seriously about growth, that gap is also a marketing and communications problem, not just a technology one.
Know What AI Is Actually Good At
For financial advisors, the most immediate wins tend to cluster around high-volume, repetitive, research-heavy tasks: drafting client communications, summarizing meeting notes, building first-cut investment commentary, prepping for quarterly reviews. For most advisors, these tasks eat up hours every week. AI does not replace the judgment behind them. It compresses the time it takes to execute them, and that recovered time is what makes growth possible without adding headcount.
From a marketing and communications standpoint, that efficiency has real implications. Advisors who use AI to streamline internal processes have more capacity to focus on the things that actually build a brand: showing up consistently for clients, developing genuine thought leadership, and investing in relationships that generate referrals. AI frees up the time; what you do with that time is where the marketing strategy has to come in.
Know What AI Cannot Do
Northwestern Mutual’s 2025 Planning and Progress Study found that 47% of Americans would prefer working with a financial advisor who knows how to use AI as a planning tool, not an AI tool. They want an advisor who uses AI. That distinction matters enormously, and it is one that your marketing and communications strategy should reflect clearly.
The good news is that most clients already sense this, even if they cannot articulate it. Knowing how to use AI and being replaceable by it are two very different things, and your clients understand that distinction even if they cannot articulate it. Judgment, empathy, and trust are still inherently human traits, and so is the ability to tell a compelling story about why your firm is the right one for a particular client. AI cannot build your brand, develop the relationships that generate referrals, position you as a credible, recognizable voice in your market, or craft the kind of messaging that makes a prospect decide that you are worth a conversation before they have ever met you. That is still the job, and it still requires real marketing and communications expertise.
Start With One or Two Specific Workflows
The advisors getting the most out of AI are not the ones who bought every available tool. They picked a couple of pain points and applied AI purposefully to those. A good starting point: try an AI notetaker in your next client meeting (Jump and Zocks are both category leaders), then use a generative tool to draft your follow-up. Do that consistently for a month and see what changes. A few worth considering:
Client meeting notes and follow-ups: AI notetakers like Jump or Zocks handle transcription and summary in real time, and a generative tool like ChatGPT or Claude can turn those notes into a polished follow-up email in minutes. Try it consistently for a month and see how much time you get back.
Client communications at scale: Tools like Jasper or ChatGPT can help draft personalized check-in emails, market update summaries, and milestone outreach based on a few bullet points you provide. The advisor still owns the relationship and the voice; AI just removes the blank page.
Social media: If you are already producing client letters, market commentary, or webinar content, tools like Castmagic or Repurpose.io can help break that existing content into shorter, platform-ready formats for LinkedIn without requiring you to create something from scratch.
Prospect research: Tools like Perplexity or ChatGPT can quickly pull together a prospect's background, recent news about their firm, or relevant market context before a first meeting, so you walk in better prepared without spending an hour on Google.
Once you have a handle on where AI saves you the most time, the next question is what you do with that time strategically. That is where a marketing and PR perspective becomes essential. Recovered time is only valuable if it gets redirected toward activities that build visibility and credibility in your market, whether that means more consistent content, better client communications, a stronger social media presence, or media opportunities that position your firm as a thought leader. Having the tool is the easy part. Having a plan for what the efficiency gains are supposed to accomplish is the harder and more important conversation.
Have the Compliance Conversation Now
A 2025 ISS Market Intelligence survey found that 78% of RIAs have no written policies on AI use. That is not just an operational gap; it is a liability. Before you put any AI tool into a client-facing workflow, know what data it retains, how it handles sensitive information, and whether its output could be construed as regulated advice.
From a communications standpoint, this matters beyond regulatory compliance. How your firm handles client data is part of your story. Clients and prospects are paying attention to how advisors navigate emerging technology, and the firms that can speak confidently about their AI governance, what they use it for, what guardrails are in place, and why, are the ones that will be trusted. Building good habits now, before regulators require it, is also good brand strategy.
Think Strategy, Not Just Tools
Two-thirds of advisors expect AI to be transformative to financial advice within three years, per the Schwab study. The firms that will benefit most are not the ones that adopted it earliest. They are the ones that adopted it most intentionally, and that intention has to extend beyond the technology decisions to the marketing and communications decisions that surround them.
AI will not differentiate your firm. Every advisor at every firm has access to the same tools. What will differentiate you is how clearly you articulate your value, how consistently you show up in the channels where your clients and prospects are paying attention, and how well your communications strategy keeps the human connection front and center even as the back-end processes become more efficient. The technology is widely available. The story you build around it is yours.
There is also a real opportunity right now for advisors willing to lead the conversation in their market rather than follow it. Most firms are still figuring out what to say about AI. The ones that develop a clear, confident perspective on what it means for their clients, delivered through consistent thought leadership and proactive media presence, will own that conversation. That kind of visibility does not happen by accident, and it does not come from posting on LinkedIn once a week or sending a quarterly newsletter. It comes from having a clear point of view, knowing which conversations in your market you want to be part of, and showing up in those conversations consistently enough that your name becomes the one people think of first. That requires a communications strategy built around who you are trying to reach, what you want them to believe about your firm, and what you are doing to earn that belief over time.
Kane & Hook works with financial advisors and wealth management firms to develop communications and marketing strategies that keep the human connection front and center while leveraging the tools that make growth scalable. Whether you are working through how AI fits into your firm’s story, looking to sharpen your brand positioning, or ready to build a more consistent thought leadership and media presence, we can help. To learn more, email us at sarah@kaneandhook.com or visit kaneandhookcomm.com and connect with us on LinkedIn.