The AI impact 
As shown in the research conducted by Accenture [6], there is approximately $78 trillion of assets ready to be captured by wealth managers (due to the global expansion of the middle class and wealth created by a new generation of entrepreneurs, e.g., those who decided to embark into their own business thanks to the great amount of information available on the web and the almost zero cost of reaching customers through social media). For this reason, AI presents a good fit for targeting this market since it provides:

--  Major client engagement through the use of web-based platforms by the advisors and their own clients; 
--  It helps to elaborate better financial products such as portfolio optimisation by using machine learning; 
--  User experience is enhanced by providing a transparent 24/7 readily available source of information in a website; and 
--  AI increases productivity and operational efficiency since the big majority of the tasks are performed by AI-automated systems (e.g. portfolio allocation given the clients preferences, automated order placement and free access to all accounting services).

The adoption of AI is not reserved for fintech start-ups. There is a clear adoption by major institutions in the market proving its fundamental value to address the new market challenges. Actually, there is a trend of big corporations incorporating AI-based solutions in their investment and portfolio allocation repertoire. Examples include Abrdn, which recently acquired Exo Investing [7], a move that is intended to deliver a 24/7 digital wealth management solution via an app and JP Morgan has also bought another fintech firm: Nutmeg (containing approximately £3.5 billion in assets under management for more than 140,000 clients) [8]. Perhaps, one of the most successful stories of AI in wealth management is the case of The Next Best Action system by Morgan Stanley, which provides their financial advisors with machine learning algorithms to identify investments of interest to particular pre-existing clients [9]. From this practice it has been shown that continual engagement with the client has improved the overall experience and motivated substantial valuable changes in their winning strategy. 

Machine learning made simple
Machine learning can be seen as a subfield of AI concerned with the incremental learning of artificial systems from data with the central objective of taking advantage from previous experience.

AI/ML makes the investment process better by systematically making an abstraction of the wealth management process and transforming it to a pipeline of the following automated tasks:
-- Preference profiling. Smart front-end interfaces gain insight into the current client situation by providing an automated questionnaire which keeps track of the answer history and then mathematically transfers this information into a classification process for user profiling. For example, in terms of risk tolerance we can segment clients into cautious, balanced or aggressive. Using transfer learning, we can also significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to complete these questionnaires as one of the primary characteristics of younger generations is lower tolerance for completing forms; 
-- Asset allocation. Based on previously trained models and the client's profile, an AI-based system infers an optimal solution for the allocation of wealth by using a predefined portfolio or dynamically tailoring a new option for covering specific needs. From our previous example, cautious clients are immediately assigned a portfolio with a large majority of fixed income securities, a small proportion in equities and a minimal proportion of cash and equivalents. Balanced clients are automatically assigned portfolios with an equal amount of fixed income securities and equities. Aggressive clients take a minimal proportion of fixed income securities and a major part of equities, keeping a minimal amount of cash and equivalents; and 
-- Order management. Clients can opt for a fully-automated solution that places orders in the market autonomously, or they can impose stricter controls for order approval.

What’s next for wealth management?
My vision of the wealth management sector of the future involves the construction and development of data-driven machine learning solutions. Specifically, extending the notion of modern portfolio theory by driving the investment process through the use of automated AI-based systems for asset allocation, order management and placement, reporting and portfolio analysis. Clients of the future are -extremely- tech savvy, therefore they should be able to enter a holistic application designed to meet their needs, and at the same time being accessible from any computer, mobile device or tablet. 

Disruptive technologies should  aim to revolutionise the investment process in wealth management, providing an automated combined solution offering:
--  High returns over a low cost. The new business model should use a data-centric paradigm where machine learning algorithms are totally in charge of automated asset allocation, supplying conventional human intervention in portfolio creation (having a proven performance over passive ETFs offering uncorrelated portfolios to major indices reducing risk). Web-based fund monitoring and accounting tools make clients totally independent in any reporting or order management tasks.  
--  Full transparency. Automated solutions should provide the client with full 24/7 access to the most detailed information regarding allocation, exposure data and portfolio risk. 
--  Excellent client experience. Clients should be allowed to gain instant access to their data taking advantage of high levels of automation, efficiency and mobility on demand.  
--  Tech-driven advice (fully or partially automated). Full automation produces an optimal tailored portfolio given a personalised requirements elicitation process. Furthermore, direct communication to the client enhances the investing process by aligning those automated recommendations to special requests by the clients (e.g. interest in a sustainable ESG approach, risk-aversion level modification, or a different rate of return).

Integration is paramount. Currently, incredible efforts need to be put in place in order to integrate several service providers and their outputs to access a portfolio management system to keep track of performance and exposures; a risk management system to visualise historical risk-metrics (volatility, Sharpe ratio, etc.) by considering benchmark indices and performing factor analysis in order to statistically explain the nature of the returns; an order management system to review and control any order to be executed as well as keeping a history of previous orders for reporting purposes; an information management system for having direct access to all the relevant information about their investments and a data lab to allow them to experiment with back-testing scenarios of their strategies.

The use of AI in investment management is set to revolutionise the industry. A disruptive holistic approach described in this paper fills the gap between end clients and targeted performance from their portfolios by automating the entire investment process. Financial advisors need to augment their skills with the advent of the new trend of technologies in order to have a competitive advantage [10]. Operational costs can be highly reduced by opting for a fully-automated solution.

The future is bright. I am optimistic that for these new generations of investors a well-deserved and trustworthy set of opportunities will (and can only) be offered through innovative technology.

About the author:

Dr Sonia Schulenburg is director, and investment committee member of Level E Capital SICAV plc, a Maltese multi-fund investment company dedicated to autonomous investing. She holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Edinburgh and a BEng in Computer Engineering (summa cum laude; 1st Class Honours) from the ITAM in Mexico City, a Professional Certificate in accounting from the University of California, San Diego and a postgraduate degree in Corporate Strategy and Finance from Edinburgh Napier University, where she graduated with distinction in both.

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Steve Dyson from Investment & Wealth Management Consultants Ltd for the interesting conversations, support and guidance while conducting this research paper.

References

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[7] Abrdn acquires AI solutions business Exo Investing. Investment Week. Online article. August 10, 2021. Visited on August 25, 2021. https://www.investmentweek.co.uk/news/4035619/abrdn-acquires-ai-solutions-business-exo-investing.

[8] JP Morgan buys Nutmeg. Fund Europe. Online article. Accessed on June 23, 2021. https://www.funds-europe.com/news/jp-morgan-buys-nutmeg.

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