New research shows AI has moved from experimentation to expectation in wealth management, with firm capabilities now influencing advisor loyalty
Artificial intelligence has become a fixture of the modern advisory practice, with more than half of financial advisors who have adopted the technology now saving at least four hours every week, equivalent to more than 200 hours, or 26 full working days, over the course of a year, according to a new U.S. report with clear implications for the Canadian advice industry.
AssetMark's 2026 Advisor Insights: Artificial Intelligence Report, released September 15, 2026, surveyed 400 U.S.-based financial advisors between June 24 and July 7, 2026, and found that 85 per cent have adopted AI-integrated solutions to some degree.
Eighty per cent expect their use to deepen over the next 12 months. The research signals that the industry has moved past debating whether advisors will use AI and into a harder question: how effectively they will embed it into their everyday work.
"The AI conversation in wealth management is moving past adoption," said Alex Pape, chief product and technology officer at AssetMark, headquartered in Concord, California. "The question now is whether AI is actually making advisors better at their jobs. Giving an advisor four or more hours back each week is meaningful, but the real opportunity is what they can do with that capacity: spend more time with clients, apply their judgment to more complex problems and focus on the work where human expertise matters most."
The findings echo a pattern playing out in Canada, where AI adoption across wealth management is accelerating even as firms grapple with how to measure its value.
How advisors are putting AI to work
Among those who have adopted AI, 45 per cent use it to generate meeting notes or summaries, the leading application. Automated performance reports and dashboards follow at 43 per cent, research summarisation at 42 per cent, risk analysis at 42 per cent, and workflow and scheduling automation at 40 per cent.
The breadth of those use cases matters as much as the individual numbers. AI is entering advisory practices not through a single dominant tool but across the tasks advisors already perform — reducing friction in analytical, operational and client communications work simultaneously.
The value advisors perceive extends beyond efficiency. Half identify improved work quality as a primary benefit, while 43 per cent cite business growth, 41 per cent point to improved client experience, and 40 per cent credit increased firm revenue. Eighty-five per cent say AI has helped them expand the types of clients they serve, a finding with direct implications for Canadian advisors navigating rising client expectations and competitive pressure from both digital platforms and larger dealer networks.
"Advisors are under increasing pressure to deliver more personalised service while managing greater complexity," said Michael Kim, chief executive officer of AssetMark. "This research reinforces the importance of technology that creates meaningful capacity, fits naturally into the way advisors work and keeps their judgment at the centre of the client experience."
The integration gap is widening
The report reveals a meaningful divergence between registered investment advisors and independent advisors affiliated with broker-dealers, a distinction with a clear parallel for Canadian advisors considering how their affiliation model shapes their access to technology.
Ninety-one per cent of RIAs have adopted AI-integrated solutions, compared with 81 per cent of broker-dealer-affiliated independents. RIAs are also more likely to anticipate deeper use; 87 per cent expect their AI usage to grow over the next 12 months, against 75 per cent of BD-affiliated advisors.
The gap extends into how AI is actually being used. Among adopters, 49 per cent of RIAs use AI to draft client communications, compared with 30 per cent of BD-affiliated advisors. For workflow and scheduling automation, the split is 48 per cent to 35 per cent. On portfolio stress testing, RIAs lead 41 per cent to 25 per cent.
That divergence is becoming consequential beyond productivity. Sixty-nine per cent of advisors said they would consider switching firms if their current firm's AI capabilities fell behind competitors. Among advisors managing $500 million or more, that figure rises to 78 per cent.
As WP has reported, Canadian advisors and their clients are also asking harder questions about who still needs human advice as AI tools improve, making the competitive stakes of falling behind on technology increasingly difficult to ignore.
Human judgment stays central
Adviser enthusiasm for AI does not translate into a willingness to delegate high-stakes decisions. Half of surveyed advisors said they would not trust AI to handle client-facing work. Forty-five per cent would not entrust it with portfolio decisions, and 43 per cent identified compliance as an area that must remain under human control.
The model that emerges is one of broader AI use in the background - summarising, analysing and automating repetitive work - alongside continued adviser ownership of advice, judgment and the client relationship itself. Canadian institutions such as TD Wealth are applying the same logic, deploying AI to support advisors while keeping human oversight at the centre of every decision.
Among the 15 per cent of advisors who have not yet adopted AI, cost ranks last among the barriers. Client confidentiality and data privacy concerns lead at 46 per cent, followed by the time required to investigate, learn and implement new tools at 43 per cent.
The implication for firms is that simply making AI available is insufficient. Meaningful adoption requires governance frameworks, practical education and workflow integration, areas where Canadian dealers and platforms are still building capacity.
