When most people think about sailing on the open seas, they rarely get past the image of big sails and the ship’s captain at the helm, barking orders to crew members laboring on the deck, but the fact is, sailing has changed a lot in recent decades.
While sails are still big, captains are still loud and crews still work hard, technological advancements in radar, navigation, and other facets of operation have taken a lot of the danger and uncertainty off the table. Today, captains and crews are spending more time on the art of sailing and less time looking at paper charts and combing the horizon for dangerous weather.
A similar shift is underway in the world of finance, where the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) is opening the floodgates to enormous volumes of information available at a moment’s notice. If you thought the internet and smart phones were revolutionary, wait until you see what’s coming around the corner.
As we move further into 2023, we are seeing a surge in groundbreaking AI technology releases from companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google. The wave is already transforming our daily workflows, ranging from business email communications, PowerPoint presentations, and complex spreadsheet and database analysis to personal tasks, such as booking travel reservations, personal services and grocery delivery.
Soon, we can expect to see even more profound changes, as nearly every aspect of traditional office operations can be affected by this powerful technology.
And like those sailors on the open seas, financial advisors will soon have more time to do what they do best, manage client portfolios, build relationships, and create value. Following the recent failure of Silicon Valley Bank, we spent half a day combing through data to verify whether our client portfolios were impacted by the financial crisis. But, with this new technology, we may be able to answer questions like that within moments, not hours.
By now, most of us have probably read about AI. It boils down to breakthrough technology allowing more efficient communication between computer systems, which is opening more pathways, allowing information, analysis, and functionality to flow at greater and greater speeds. In the early stages of the internet, former Vice President Al Gore used to talk the information superhighway. Today, AI is giving us a latticework of superhighways, and soon, any of the information those roads are carrying could be in our offices within minutes.
For clients, that means questions could be answered more rapidly, presentations could be more informative, and advisors could be more available with more information to make faster, smarter decisions.
Like the open seas, navigating financial markets will never be without risk, but AI is becoming a resource we can use to counter uncertainty and steer away from storms, just like the electronic charts and weather radar sailors began using all those years ago.