UK advisers warm to agentic AI in wealth platforms

KAREN JOY BACUDO

Finance Editor

Some 62% of UK financial advisers are comfortable with agentic AI being used in investment platforms, according to research by GBST based on a survey of 178 advisers carried out by the lang cat.

The findings point to growing acceptance of AI in wealth management technology. But adoption in practice will depend on how well the tools fit within regulatory and oversight frameworks and existing platform controls.

GBST argued that the debate around AI in financial services has become too broad, with attention often focused on disruption rather than the constraints facing firms that manage large customer bases and significant sums of invested assets. In wealth management, any wider use of AI will need to sit within systems already built to handle compliance, risk and operational complexity.

That distinction matters because many of the industry’s remaining administrative processes still rely on manual intervention. Firms have made progress in automating routine work over the past 15 years, yet delays, costs, and operational risks remain, as people still have to step in to complete tasks.

Regulated use

Regulation is likely to determine the pace of adoption over the next two years. Wealth managers are expected to favour AI models and tools that can produce explainable, repeatable and auditable outcomes, particularly where customer money and long-term financial outcomes are involved.

GBST identified five areas where AI is likely to affect wealth management platforms: the influence of regulation on deployment, the use of AI for complex manual administration, tighter limits on autonomous decision-making, growing demand for transparency, and a shift towards embedding AI within core platform technology rather than using separate external tools.

Control is a common theme across those areas. Highly regulated firms are unlikely to adopt open-ended autonomous systems that can act without defined boundaries or human oversight. Instead, GBST expects interest to focus on agentic AI designed to perform specific tasks within defined limits.

Back-office focus

Some of the clearest uses for AI are likely to emerge in back-office functions rather than in tools directly visible to investors. These include high-volume administrative work that is difficult to standardise across firms because operating models and processes vary widely from one wealth manager to another.

That variation has often limited the effectiveness of traditional rules-based automation. AI could help firms manage more of that complexity, provided it is deployed within existing governance structures and can be closely monitored.

Another issue is where the technology sits. Many current AI applications operate outside core systems, creating challenges for integration and oversight. Wealth managers increasingly want AI built into the main platform environment so the same safeguards used elsewhere in the business also apply to AI-driven processes.

The findings suggest the conversation in the sector is moving from experimentation to operational deployment. But they also indicate that enthusiasm alone will not determine take-up, especially where firms must demonstrate to regulators and clients how decisions are reached, and processes are controlled.

“At the moment, there’s too much focus on the disruption AI could cause and not enough on how it can be used safely to transform complex, manual processes. Platforms and wealth managers in the UK have come a long way in automating routine processes in the last 15 years, but human intervention is still required in too many situations, adding risk, cost and delay,” Rob DeDominicis, Chief Executive of GBST, said.

“AI can deliver the next round of efficiency, but only if it operates within existing controls, executing processes consistently and transparently. Firms are starting to move away from AI experimentation and are looking for real operational impact. But for AI to become genuinely valuable, we need it to meet required industry standards. We’re responsible for millions of people’s long-term financial security so there’s no room for shortcuts.”