AI in wealth management: budgets surge but ROI remains elusive

Artificial intelligence continues to reshape workflows across wealth management and capital markets, from client-service call centers to equity trading floors and independent advisory platforms. But as spending accelerates, a new wave of research suggests the industry has yet to crack the challenge of measuring what that investment is actually worth.

A new national survey of firms representing $31 trillion AUM by wealth management industry consultancy F2 Strategy, found that spending on AI has increased exponentially over the past three years. But most firms have not established a formal method of measuring their AI projects and none of the bank and trust respondents in the survey had done so.

The data, drawn from 40 leading RIAs, wealth management firms, and broker-dealers representing $8.6 trillion in assets, points to a widening gap between ambition and accountability. Sixty-four percent of wealth management firms surveyed and 83 percent of bank and trust respondents, said they do not have a unified data layer in place to make their AI projects function effectively, according to the report.

"We're seeing a very loose correlation in 2026 between firms' spend on both AI technology and its tokens and a meaningful measurable value in a classic sense to the business," said Doug Fritz, co-founder and executive chairman of F2 Strategy. "For many, private equity-backed, modern business models are driving the idea that the future existence of the firm is the ROI of AI initiatives."

Among the firms that do measure their AI investments the results are encouraging with 68 percent reported gaining 25 percent more efficiency in targeted workflows. F2’s report identifies a growing divide between "AI leaders" assembling agentic technology stacks and firms lagging behind by as much as 12 to 24 months.

Trading desks are hiring, not cutting

Despite widespread concern that AI will eliminate jobs in financial services, equity trading desks are telling a different story.

A new study released July 2026 by Crisil Coalition Greenwich found that more than half of US brokers who participated expect to increase headcount across desk coverage (52 percent), on-desk trade assistants (48 percent), and algorithmic sales (45 percent), even as AI adoption across trading workflows accelerates.

The hiring plans coincide with near-record US equity trading volumes and expectations of further growth, driven in part by a pipeline of high-profile initial public offerings. Two-thirds of the buy-side equity traders surveyed by Crisil Coalition Greenwich expect trading volumes to increase as anticipated deals from companies including SpaceX and OpenAI fuel primary and secondary market activity.

AI is being deployed across trading workflows, with approximately a third of brokers currently using it for real-time algorithm optimization (32 percent), venue selection (29 percent), and market data analysis (29 percent). Compliance and surveillance adoption remains low at 12 percent, though 44 percent of brokers plan to implement it in the near term, according to the Crisil Coalition Greenwich report.

"The human element is actually becoming more central, not less," said Jesse Forster, senior analyst in Market Structure and Technology at Crisil Coalition Greenwich and author of the report. "As automation handles routine tasks, brokers see rising value in judgment, client relationships, exception management, and the ability to explain and defend decisions — skills machines still cannot replicate."

BofA upgrades its AI client tool

On the retail and wealth side, Bank of America announced enhancements this week to EricaAssist, its generative AI-powered tool that supports more than 18,000 customer service representatives during client calls.

The bank says that its updated system delivers contextual guidance in under three seconds, helping employees summarize client needs, surface relevant information, and recommend next steps without interrupting the flow of conversation.

Bank of America said EricaAssist already reduces average call times by nearly one minute per interaction. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank spends $14 billion annually on technology, of which more than $4 billion is directed toward new initiatives including AI, per the announcement.

"EricaAssist reflects our high-tech, high-touch approach," said Ashley Ross, head of consumer client experience and business transformation at Bank of America. "By combining human judgment with real-time AI guidance, we're helping employees navigate complex topics more easily and serve clients more effectively in the moments that matter most."

The bank plans to expand EricaAssist to additional servicing scenarios and business lines later in 2026.

AI comes to RIA portfolio management

For independent advisors, a new partnership between Vise Technologies, Inc., a New York-based registered investment advisor and technology platform, and Alpha Architect, the quantitative asset manager based in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, is bringing AI-powered, tax-optimized custom model portfolios to RIAs regardless of firm size.

The integration allows advisors on the Vise platform to deploy Alpha Architect's research-driven, rules-based investment strategies and tailor each one to individual clients, accounting for concentrated positions, values-based exclusions, and tax circumstances, all managed within a single workflow.

As of July 2026, the Vise platform holds more than $100 billion in platform assets across more than 100 advisory firms and 135,000 accounts, according to Vise.

"Advisors have been forced to choose between the models they believe in and the personalization their clients deserve," said Samir Vasavada, chief executive officer and co-founder of Vise. "Now they don't have to."

Jack Vogel, PhD, co-chief investment officer of Alpha Architect, said the platform delivers a capability advisors have long sought. "I've been asking people to build what Vise built for years," he said. "That combination never really existed."