CEO Anders Jones Interviewed by Inc. on the Role of AI in Financial Advice
Inc. featured Facet CEO Anders Jones to discuss how AI chatbots handle money questions and where human connection remains essential for financial choices.
ChatGPT, Claude, and other LLMs have made it incredibly easy to share data–whether through uploading static statements or linking live data feeds of accounts. The pitch that the model companies give is that that level of information gives them enough context to give financial ‘advice’ (in quotes, because it is not advice by the legal definition). They use inference to provide answers, which essentially is a guess at what the right output should be. For certain things, it works well. For others, it doesn’t, and number crunching is one of the key places that it falls down. Second, it doesn’t have nearly enough context to provide a clear financial picture. With an LLM, it is only as good as the data that is in front of it, and there is no way a person can upload all of the nuances and complexities of their life.
I’ve fallen into this trap a few times, including uploading my (anonymized) tax return to have it look for mistakes, when it proudly showed all the errors that my CPA made, I asked it to check its work, and it came back with a big mea culpa that would have cost me thousands of dollars had I taken it at first blush.
Those advisors who are living out a bear case for AI and not updating their priors on what good planning and good client service looks like are doomed for failure in relatively short order. With that said, it’s not all bad news. AI is an incredible tool for advisors to use to make their businesses more efficient and to provide a higher quality of service to their clients. For anything that could be classified as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ advice, decisions, choices, you’re going to want a human with real experience and a real relationship with you to weigh in. Particularly if that decision is difficult to ‘undo’.
I’m optimistic about using AI to help with our financial lives, but the key is understanding when to loop in an accredited human. I don’t expect clients to defect to chatbots overnight, and I do think that the death of the human advisor is greatly exaggerated.