AI use reshapes advisor satisfaction and deepens client trust, separate studies reveal
JD Power also found that advisors seeing real benefit from AI were considerably more likely to stay loyal to their current firm and to believe their firm offers a genuine path to grow their income.
“We’re now seeing AI move beyond the buzz and start to fundamentally change how advisors manage their practices and evaluate their firms’ ability to support their continued growth,” said Mike Foy, managing director of the wealth management practice at JD Power. “When AI is rolled out smoothly, with proactive communication and effective training, advisors can take hours back from compliance and administrative work and reinvest that time in clients and new business development. The firms that get that formula right are the ones seeing the biggest gains in satisfaction, loyalty and productivity in their advisor populations.”
The keys to a “very effective” AI rollout, per JD Power, come down to well-managed technology deployment, proactive communication with advisors, and solid training, rather than the tools themselves.
Teaming and succession pressures
JD Power’s research highlights that advisor teaming is another major factor shaping satisfaction, particularly among independent advisors.
Industry-wide, 40% of employee advisors and 35% of independent advisors now work as part of a team, and that figure jumps to 49% among independent advisors under age 50. Satisfaction peaked among teams of three or four advisors, a size JD Power suggests strikes the best balance between scale and client-facing focus.
