Artificial intelligence will help deliver the “hyper-personalised advice on wealth” that the profession has been talking about for some time, HSBC’s head of wealth and premier solutions has said.
Speaking to FT Adviser at the bank’s Canary Wharf headquarters, Lavanya Chari said: “Now we genuinely have the technological capabilities to be able to give extremely personalised advice to our wealth customers.
“And I feel like it is also going to strengthen the bond between relationship managers, wealth advisers and customers even more.”
Asked whether AI would change the nature of human advice, Chari, who is usually based in Singapore, said: “Definitely, advisers are having to adapt, and will have to adapt in the future.
“But what gives us comfort is the fact that our clients still want to have the discussion with the human adviser.”
Chari cited HSBC research published in June, which showed 73 per cent of affluent and high-net-worth investors used AI for finance and investment.
However, only 12 per cent said it was the most influential factor in their last investment decision.
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The survey also showed that, as investors approach a final decision, they turn to professional advisers for the human inputs that shape outcomes and accountability, with 80 per cent citing reassurance and 72 per cent citing strategic expertise.
“It will be a more evolved relationship where, honestly, the relationship becomes even more human, even more empathetic, because a lot of the transactional information will be provided in different ways,” she said.
Chari cited a recent McKinsey survey showing relationship managers spend around 60 per cent of their time on administrative and other non-client-facing activities.
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While the generative AI component might be new, Chari said HSBC had been on a digital journey with its clients for “quite some time”.
“74 per cent of wealth trading is done digitally for us now, which is a significant number,” she said.
Women and wealth
However, AI was not the only change Chari highlighted in wealth management.
Not only were women inheriting more, Chari said, but they were also earning more, creating new opportunities and challenges for advisers.
“Women think about wealth slightly differently. They tend to be more long-term in terms of their horizon. They also tend to be more purpose-led,” she said.
“They have not fundamentally invested as much as men in the past, which means that there is more room for education, which also means that there is more room for advice,” she added.
Chari agreed that the nature of advising clients had changed, with more people incorporating their partners and families into broader wealth planning.
That meant training advisers on products, customer interaction and the changing nature of their customers.
“I genuinely feel that we have the trust of our customers and nothing can replace that,” Chari concluded.
hereward.mills@ft.com