Do clients want their financial advisor using AI

Most advisory clients in 2026 are comfortable with their advisor using AI for back-office work — meeting prep, content drafting, scheduling — but expect the actual advice to come from a human and the actual relationship to feel personal. Disclosure of AI use is increasingly expected, especially for anything that touches the client directly.

What clients are comfortable with

• AI summarizing meetings.
• AI drafting routine emails (when reviewed and signed by the advisor).
• AI helping schedule, organize, and prep.
• AI used for content the firm publishes.
• AI used for research and analysis the advisor uses to inform advice.

What makes clients uncomfortable

• Chatbots talking to them as if they were the advisor.
• AI making recommendations that the advisor just rubber-stamps.
• Discovery that the firm uses AI without ever having mentioned it.
• Anything that feels like the advisor is offloading the relationship.

The disclosure question

Clients increasingly expect to know when AI is involved. A simple, straightforward disclosure ("we use AI to help draft our communications, which our advisors review and approve before sending") goes a long way. Hidden AI use, when discovered, breaks trust faster than open AI use.

What to do

• Add a sentence to your client agreement or website explaining how the firm uses AI.
• Be clear that the advisor reviews everything client-facing.
• Don't pretend AI isn't involved when it is.
• Don't oversell AI when it's not.

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