New study: AI can unlock adviser capacity, but only 7% have embedded it

New study: AI can unlock adviser capacity, but only 7% have embedded it

Advice professionals with AI embedded across their workflows are up to three times more likely to report broader business benefits than those still piloting or partially deploying it.

• 81% say their business could absorb a 30% increase in adviser capacity, suggesting production capacity is a greater constraint on growth than demand.
• 50% cite poor integration as a barrier to greater AI adoption, while 43% would rather wait for AI capabilities in software they already use than adopt a standalone tool.
• 58% say measured hours saved per adviser would most justify further AI investment, yet only 28% have measured the time or cost impact of their existing AI tools.
• 45% rate advice-document production as the heaviest part of the advice process and 35% plan to use AI for SOA generation over the next 12 months.

New research from Iress and Signal Advisory shows that advice professionals using AI more deeply across their workflows are significantly more likely to report broader business benefits, including helping advisers see more clients, serve clients better and retire existing software or services. Yet only 7% of practices describe AI as embedded across their advice process.

The report, ‘AI in advice: adoption, beliefs and barriers’, draws on insights from more than 800 advice professionals across Australia and New Zealand, and highlights the opportunity to turn AI from a task-level efficiency tool into an embedded capacity and growth engine for advice.

Iress CEO - Wealth APAC, Sam Wall, said the findings point to a shift in where value will be created. “AI is already delivering real productivity gains in advice. The opportunity now is to take those gains further into the workflow and turn them into capacity - helping businesses serve more clients, improve the quality of the advice experience and grow.

“Advice document production remains one of the biggest burdens, yet AI adoption in this area is still low. Our ambition is to help advisers materially reduce the time it takes to produce advice, creating more time with clients and ultimately the potential to make advice accessible to more people.

“But achieving that depends on trust. 89% of respondents use general-purpose AI assistants, yet 31% would not trust a large global AI company to deliver AI for regulated advice safely and effectively. Advisers need confidence in the data, technology and controls around AI.

“This lines up with the work we’re doing on the evolution of Xplan. AI and agentic capabilities are central to our product strategy as we’re making Xplan faster, modernising the client experience, improving workflows and bringing AI into the advice journey. The goal is to make advice significantly more efficient while keeping advisers firmly in the driver’s seat, using the trusted data, workflows and controls within Xplan as the foundation for AI.”

The research shows that while AI is already creating meaningful productivity gains, these are largely being absorbed into existing processes rather than changing the broader technology stack. 63% say AI has been added to their technology stack without replacing anything and just 5% have retired an existing software tool or service as a result of AI.

Signal Advisory Founder, Anthony Caneva, said: “The research shows a two-speed value story for AI. The productivity gains are real, but they are not yet consistently flowing through to the wider economics of the advice business. While 47% of AI-engaged respondents report saving at least a quarter of their time on the tasks where they use AI, only 20% report a material benefit in lower cost to serve.

“AI won’t be the answer to every process challenge. Traditional rules-based automation remains well suited to deterministic, repeatable tasks, while AI is best suited to work involving natural language, interpretation and synthesis. The focus should be on applying the right technology to the right task.

“For advice businesses, that means looking beyond the AI task itself and at what happens around it. 30% of AI-engaged respondents say checking outputs consumes much of the time AI saves. Hand-offs, rework and verification can absorb those gains before they translate into capacity or growth.

“Measurement is critical too. 58% say measured hours saved per adviser would most justify further AI investment, yet only 28% have measured the time or cost impact of their existing AI tools. Firms need to establish a baseline and track whether time saved is actually released back into the business.”

The research, ‘AI in advice: adoption, beliefs and barriers’, points to a clear next step for the industry: moving from task-level AI productivity towards integrated, measurable capability that unlocks adviser capacity and growth. The full report is available at: https://info.iress.com/ai-in-advice.

Other key statistics from the report:

• 72% of respondents are piloting AI or have moved beyond the pilot stage, while just 7% describe AI as embedded across most of their advice process.
• 81% use AI for meeting notes and file notes, compared with just 8% for SOA generation.
• 64% say regulators have not provided enough clarity on AI use in advice.
• 48% would accept AI-generated recommendations if a person reviews everything before it reaches the client.
• 78% believe firms that have not adopted AI within two years will face a competitive disadvantage.