Future wealthy clients visiting a Morgan Stanley financial advisor to talk about their assets might encounter a different kind of interaction: a chatbot that listens in on their conversation.
The bank will launch a generative artificial intelligence bot this month after testing it with 1,000 financial advisors for a few months. The bot was created in collaboration with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.Rather than trawling through millions of records, bankers can utilize the virtual assistant to find information or forms quickly
The bank is also creating technology that will eventually, with clients’ permission, be able to draught a meeting summary of the conversation, update the bank’s sales database, schedule a follow-up appointment, and learn how to assist advisers in managing clients’ finances in areas like taxes, retirement savings, and inheritances. The program’s specifics have not yet been revealed.Sal Cucchiara, chief information officer of wealth and investment management at Morgan Stanley and one of the executives leading the bank’s drive into AI, predicted that “the impact (of AI) will be very significant,” possibly equal to the arrival of the internet.
Before the rapidly expanding app ChatGPT became well-known, Cucchiara, who was entrusted with regularly scouring Silicon Valley for possible software vendors, met OpenAI officials in 2022.They were well ahead of everyone else, so it became obvious right away that we needed to work with them, he added.
After that, Boris Power, a technical employee at the business, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman traveled to California to talk about cooperation with Andy Saperstein, co-president and head of wealth management at Morgan Stanley.They agreed to a contract last summer, and Morgan Stanley now has first dibs on wealth management product development. The two company executives celebrated over a dinner sponsored by Saperstein, a potential CEO contender for the bank.
Investment advice will still be left to human advisors, but the bot will provide financial professionals with administrative assistance and insights.Cucchiara stated, “The advisor is still at the center. Employees don’t fear being replaced by robots at the moment; they see technology as a useful tool, he said.
INCOME RACEThe AI program is a cornerstone of Morgan Stanley’s plan to grow its wealth division, which saw a record-breaking 2Q net revenue increase of 16% and $90 billion in additional client assets.
CEO James Gorman wants to handle $10 trillion in assets, and he has managed a number of significant partnerships that have brought in additional funding for the wealth industry.In terms of its AI ambitions, Morgan Stanley is not alone. While banks already employ AI for data analysis, fraud detection, and consumer transaction analysis, Wall Street behemoths are pursuing more complex applications of generative AI, which can produce text, images, and other types of data.
In June, Teresa Heitsenrether was appointed chief data and analytics officer at the nation’s largest lender, JPMorgan Chase, to spearhead the adoption of AI. Since its debut in 2018, Erica, the virtual assistant from rival Bank of America has engaged in over one billion client engagements.Nick Reed, the company’s chief product officer, revealed that Moody’s Analytics is also collaborating with OpenAI and Microsoft to create a research assistant that clients may utilize.
However, asset managers, dealers, and insurers are also using AI, according to Michael Abbott, global banking head at consulting firm Accenture. Large banks are the most advanced financial firms in their deployment of AI.According to Abbott, who is collaborating with lenders interested in using AI on hundreds of case studies, “we’re starting to see customer services driven by artificial intelligence spread among the largest banks.”
