How technology is reshaping financial advice

Nick Eatock, CEO, intelliflo

Financial advice is undergoing its biggest transformation in decades. AI, better-quality data and rising client expectations are reshaping how firms operate and how clients expect to be served. While technology once felt like an add-on to the main advice journey, it’s now become the backbone of how leading firms run their businesses.

Our 2025 eAdviser Index underlines this change. It found that our Explorer cohort, who only make use of the basic functionality within intelliflo office, is now too small to provide a meaningful comparison. At the other end of the scale, the number of Champions, our most tech-savvy firms, grew by 34% year on year.

This increased use of technology has helped drive operational efficiency and improve client experiences and outcomes. Per adviser, Champions generate 105% more revenue, achieve 119% more ongoing revenue, and manage 86% more assets under advice (AUA) than Adopters, who make strong use of the core technology but are not currently leveraging all available functionality.

With data quality improving, AI rapidly evolving, and consumer expectations rising, the advice landscape is transforming at a pace we haven’t seen before. As we begin 2026, how can firms harness these advances to deliver better outcomes, operate more efficiently and widen access to advice?

The AI opportunity

Just a couple of years ago, when advisers discussed AI, it felt speculative – something to play with, but not an essential tool. Now, many firms are no longer experimenting; they are deliberately investing in AI.

We’re seeing meeting transcription, note-taking, and evidence-capture as the most common entry points, with many advisers now recording client meetings and letting AI transcribe and summarise. The speed of change makes it hard to predict where we’ll be even a year from now, but the direction of travel is clear. Usage will continue to accelerate, with advisers leaning on reliable, compliant AI tools embedded deeper into advice processes.

Handing over some of the admin burden to technology means advisers can spend more time with existing clients. Some firms are already reporting tangible benefits with advisers saying that using meeting-recording apps allows them to concentrate on building rapport, listening and engaging with clients rather than scribbling notes.

It allows firms to take on more clients and grow without increasing headcount. It offers advisers a chance to change their work-life balance, relieved of some of the pressure of regulatory demands, without compromising on quality, suitability and client outcomes.

Currently, though, adoption isn’t universal. While AI usage is certainly growing, it largely remains focused on back-office tasks and some advisers view it as a threat as much as an opportunity. However, I’m in no doubt that we’ll see use become more widespread and move into other areas of the advice journey as use cases are proven.

As with any emerging technology, there will always be early adopters, cautious followers and those who come on board only once the tools are evidenced and embedded across the profession. That curve is starting to take shape now, and as vendors mature and tools become more integrated, firms will become more confident to follow the paths established by early adopters.

Data as the foundation

Of course, AI is nothing without data. The real power of today’s tools lies in what firms can do with good, clean, comprehensive data. Historically, many UK advice firms have struggled to build a clear picture of their clients’ financial position due to poor quality data and siloed systems.

Integration remains a challenge. Many firms still rely on multiple legacy systems that don’t easily speak to one another, creating friction and duplicated effort. But data quality and accessibility are improving, and firms are increasingly aware of the value of a unified data environment, with some streamlining their technology stacks by reducing the overall number of tools in use to cut complexity and improve data consistency.

For advisers, better insight allows for deeper client profiling, more accurate modelling, and less admin. For firms, it means enhanced management information, stronger operational control, simpler regulatory returns and greater personalisation with the potential to scale advice without sacrificing quality.

It’s a critical shift. Data is the foundation on which scalable, personalised advice must be built. If the new Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 is properly enforced, it has the potential to unlock more open, standardised data-sharing and support advice models evolving and scaling.

I think one of the most compelling outcomes of this technology wave will be the rise of hybrid advice models. While traditional advice meets the needs of the current cohort of advised clients, just 9% of people in the UK take advice according to the lang cat’s latest Advice Gap report. The success of auto-enrolment is ensuring that more people are saving regularly for later life and creating a broader group of people who would benefit from support around their retirement planning.

I’d hope that the government’s new targeted support framework, although unlikely to impact the advice profession directly, will have the long-term benefit of encouraging more consumers to engage with saving and investing, creating a pipeline of future advised clients. Early, lightweight guidance could mean more people reaching major life stages, such as buying a home, having children and planning for retirement, in a better financial position and ready for full advice.

As the types of clients wanting to access advice evolve, a one-size-fits-all process will no longer be appropriate. I expect we’ll see an increase in more modular and flexible advice journeys, with comprehensive, adviser-led financial planning for high-net-worth clients and semi-automated, lighter-touch advice for younger clients or those with lower investable assets.

Technology will become even further embedded in the advice journey for all clients, with digital onboarding and review tools for ongoing clients and client portals delivering video summaries, interactive checklists, and reminders tailored to the individual client’s needs. All underpinned by a consistent advice framework and compliant processes.

Technology’s role in compliance

It will also support the ongoing compliance demands faced by the profession. Record-keeping and suitability assessments have long been a heavy burden and the FCA’s data request over the summer suggests that this is unlikely to change. Digital record-keeping, meeting transcription, audit trails, and data capture all help firms meet regulatory demands efficiently. We’re already seeing increasing customisation of dashboards and leveraging of data lake technology to support firms with complex reporting and oversight requirements, and we expect this trend to continue as firms turn to technology to make it easier to remain compliant.

Integration matters here too. Fragmented systems make it harder to evidence suitability, maintain clean audit trails and respond quickly to regulatory data requests. Consolidating and standardising data flows is becoming as much a compliance priority as an operational one.

By embracing technology, firms can offer compliant, high-quality advice across a broader client base and at a lower cost per client than was ever realistic before. It will make it possible to offer an appropriate service to the types of clients who many firms have felt obliged to ‘offboard’ as an unintended consequence of Consumer Duty rules through lighter-touch, hybrid models. For the first time in a long time, I feel optimistic about more people receiving advice and narrowing the advice gap.

And through all this increased use of technology, I strongly believe advice will always be human-first. Research by Unbiased confirms that the vast majority (74%) of consumers prefer human advisers while only 6% would rely solely on an AI-driven platform.

However, a third (34%) are open to a hybrid model with human advice supported by AI tools.

Technology can support and scale advice, but it cannot replace the human judgement, trust and empathy at the heart of financial planning. Instead, it elevates the human aspect. By reducing admin, automating mundane or repetitive tasks, advisers and paraplanners can spend more time building relationships and understanding clients’ goals, dreams and fears. Rather than reduce the quality of advice, it can improve it.

The risks

Of course, this transformation is not without risk. The same technologies that enable scalability also introduce new vulnerabilities. Businesses in all sectors are becoming more concerned about data governance, supplier stability and cybersecurity.

Advisers in particular are concerned about understanding the risks as well as the opportunities offered by AI. In a market crowded with start-ups, assessing the best provider can also feel bewildering, with firms not wanting to invest time and money into a solution that they will have to unwind if the supplier fails.

Rigorous due diligence is becoming even more important to understand where the client data goes, who can access it, the security of the infrastructure and what happens if the AI supplier disappears. Ultimately, firms remain responsible for their clients’ data and they need to ask their vendors the tricky questions.

Weak oversight or poor data governance could at best undermine client trust, and at worst lead to serious compliance or security failures. Malicious cyber actors no longer focus only on large institutions; attackers are now targeting firms of all sizes and firms need to ensure that strong safeguards are in place throughout their supply chain as well as in their own business.

Looking ahead

It won’t happen overnight, but over the next year and beyond, as AI matures, data infrastructure improves and the regulatory and consumer savings environment evolves, high-quality advice delivered by human advisers supported by technology will become a reality for many more people in the UK.