THE LEAD | 2025 Future Trends in Artificial Intelligence and Finance, Part 2

This week we continue Part 2 of our industry report on trends we will see in 2025 in artificial intellligence in finserv.

As AI/ML has continued to see mass adoption in 2024, we wanted to hear from industry leaders in finserv and wealthtech on their perspectives of where the technologoy would take us in 2025.

You can view comments from industry leaders in Part 1 of our series at this link published last week.

Below you will see more insights from c-suite executives who work in financial services and utilize artificial intelligence in their firms and practices.

What are the major trend/s you see ahead in artificial intelligence as it pertains to the financial sector for 2025?

The AI outlook for wealth management in 2025 can be summarized as “Baby Steps”. The largest firms have the private data and resources to incorporate AI for projects like creating next best actions or to automate workflows. Most wealth firms have not incorporated true AI and will most likely engage with turnkey products that have the AI component embedded within as a starting point. An example would be an AI notetaker or digital assistant.

Mike Casciano | President | EVO Wealth Consulting
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“With AI driving trends like hyper-personalized financial planning, virtual advisor automation, and ethical AI practices, I believe firms must prepare employees for these changes in 2025. Investing in training programs to build adaptability and data literacy will help employees interpret and apply AI insights effectively. Workshops and coaching can enhance emotional intelligence, enabling advisors to maintain trust-based client relationships. Encouraging cross-functional collaboration will help teams integrate AI into workflows. By embedding these initiatives into their culture, firms can equip employees with the skills and confidence needed to thrive in an increasingly AI-driven wealth management landscape.”

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“Agentic AI is poised to revolutionize financial services by enabling unprecedented efficiency, personalization, and scalability. Automated agents, capable of mimicking human behavior and making autonomous decisions, will transform the relationships between advisors and their clients. Indistinguishable from their human counterparts, these agents introduce significant risks of transparency, ethics, and accountability. Recently an AI agent independently formed its own LLC to trade on blockchain – completely unsupervised and without human oversight. Ensuring robust governance, and adherence to ethical standards for these “virtual employees” will be critical as the financial services industry embraces this powerful technology.”

Greg Woolf | CEO | AI Think Tank
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“Generative AI offers exciting possibilities, but its real value lies in driving business gains through mission-critical tasks. The Big Sky AI Roundtable was an inspiring forum to explore bold innovation and new ways to provide value, while also emphasizing that successful implementation requires clear planning to help people, teams, and companies adapt to the changing nature of work with Gen AI. We advise firms to start leveraging AI on small, safe priorities that unlock efficiencies and build a strong foundation of new capabilities. Companies that embrace AI now will significantly outpace those slow to adopt.”

“This year, firms started dipping their toes into the AI waters to see if all the buzz translated into meaningful results. Having seen generally positive outcomes, AI integration will be a fundamental technology trend for financial services firms working toward the ultimate goal of AI-driven personalization at scale in 2025 and beyond. At Cambridge, we’re rebuilding our advisor workstation and embedding AI into our daily processes. We’re creating an ecosystem that allows us to secure data and make every interaction safer and more efficient, while leveraging predictive insights and action items to make the integrations between Fintech partners and clearing firms more effective.”

The future lies in combining AI’s analytical power with human intuition and empathy to