Though there’s still plenty to report in this week’s AI & Finance rundown of headline announcements, it was again a bit of a slower week for artificial intelligence in financial services news.
For the wealth management industry, in particular, there were a few key items this week that are worth mentioning. The first would be a survey from Advisor360 gauging AI use among financial advisors and their feeling towards the technology, where 91% of respondents said they used generative AI tools within their work.
We should note that Advisor360 wasn’t asking about predictive AI tools that have been used for more than a decade in the financial services industry, rather, the company was asking about generative AI. Only 9% of advisors said they didn’t use generative AI at all. That’s some saturation.
What’s more, Advisor360 found a softening of advisor sentiment around artificial intelligence in general, as 85% of respondents claim AI is a help to their practice but only 8% viewed it as a threat to their livelihood, which was down from 21% of respondents viewing AI as a threat last year.
Advisor360’s respondents say they’re mostly using AI for predictive analytics, marketing automation and summarizing meetings, but few are using the technology for financial planning itself.
That takes us to the CFP Board, who, as you’ll see below, has issued new ethical guidelines around the use of AI in wealth management, covering issues like confidentiality and conflicts of interest. In addition to ethical guidelines, the Board has offered some analysis that we’d like to highlight here.
The CFP Board, in announcing the guidelines, says that AI can boost efficiency and “enable advisors to focus on areas of their business that AI can’t replicate, such as strengthening relationships and providing personalized value to clients.”
Now, we’re not sure how familiar the CFP Board’s writers and media relations folks are with generative AI, but core to its value proposition is the ability to automate major elements of relationship building and personalization—and potentially at a greater value to clients than human-driven financial advice.
The Board goes on to say “that AI can assist with tasks like research and content refinement but cannot replace the expertise, judgment and care of CFP professionals.”
Again, any work that has anything to do with retaining and accessing a body of knowledge to guide thinking, judgement and making decisions, is ripe for future disruption with successive generations of generative AI, up to and including financial planning. We’re talking about a technology that goes far beyond the sophistication of so-called “robo-advisors.”
Maybe this will become clear to the CFP Board later this year, when they will form an AI Working Group to further examine the impact of generative AI on financial planning. Today, it sounds like they’re trying to justify their existence.
Moving on, we keep our Top 5 VC pieces short and to the point, so it’s also here that we’ll call more attention to last week’s massive fundraising announcements, where at least six AI-related funding rounds were announced that came in over the $100 million mark. It seems that private market investors still have a lot of zeal for opportunities in AI—take a look at the news below from COVU, which, due to oversubscription, progressively blew through several milestones to reach a $22 million Series A round.
Bubble or not, the momentum behind AI is definitely still there.
Let’s get to your headlines.
1. Agora Data
Agora Data, Inc. (“Agora”), a leading consumer fintech company specializing in advanced capital solutions and AI-driven loan performance analytics, has completed a $12 million transaction providing liquidity for Model Finance Company, a powersports finance company. This marks Agora’s first transaction in the powersports sector, opening doors for further expansion into this specialized consumer finance segment.
Based in Orange County, California, Model Finance has provided specialized financing solutions for over 55 years across a wide range of powersport vehicles, including motorcycles, dirt bikes, ATVs, and personal watercraft. Through this partnership, Agora will support Model Finance and its dealer network with the capital, technology, and financial tools needed to expand lending options for powersports buyers.
Agora enables consumer finance companies to access liquidity and optimize portfolio performance through structured finance and AI-driven risk analytics. By offering innovative capital and scalable data-driven solutions, Agora empowers independent finance companies, banks, credit unions, investment firms, and insurance providers to grow portfolios, enhance operational efficiencies, and drive profitability under innovative and flexible facilities.
2. BigBear.ai
BigBear.ai (NYSE: BBAI), a leading provider of AI-powered decision intelligence solutions for defense, national security, travel, trade, and enterprise will provide Trueface facial biometric solutions for consumer payment transactions made across SoftPoint’s network of established retail partners through SoftPointPay.
SoftPointPay’s integration of BigBear.ai biometrics will provide businesses with advanced capabilities to enhance security, streamline operations, and elevate customer satisfaction in payment experiences.
BigBear.ai’s Trueface is the biometric matching solution powering the verification process for SoftPointPay’s point-of-sale platforms, transforming how businesses authenticate customer payments. Facial recognition technology can reduce the risk of fraudulent transactions as unique identities are difficult to replicate or steal.
3. Carefull
Synovus is tackling the rising epidemic of financial exploitation by offering Carefull to proactively detect and resolve risks for clients and their family members.
Fraud is one of the fastest-growing financial crimes in the U.S., with consumers losing an estimated $158.3 billion, adjusted for under reporting, in 2023, according to a report by the Federal Trade Commission. Financial exploitation affects people of all ages. Older adults face heightened risks, with one in five having fallen victim to fraud or financial exploitation.
By offering Carefull in a phased approach as a complimentary benefit to its clients, Synovus ensures that consumer-led, proactive fraud prevention is built more deeply into the everyday banking experience. The Carefull service includes oversight of bank, credit card and investment accounts for concerning patterns, signs of fraud, scams and common money mistakes. Carefull also provides identity and home title monitoring, credit monitoring and a secure digital vault for storing critical documents and passwords.
4. CFP Board
CFP Board has published the Generative AI Ethics Guide: A Checklist for Upholding the Code and Standards, a comprehensive guide to assist CFP® professionals in using generative artificial intelligence (AI) in their professional services. The guide is part of an ongoing series of resources to help CFP® professionals with their practice.
When used effectively, generative AI can boost efficiency and enable advisors to focus on areas of their business that AI can’t replicate, such as strengthening relationships and providing personalized value to clients. The Generative AI Ethics Guide outlines practical steps for CFP® professionals to address privacy concerns, data integrity and potential biases, helping maintain the trust and quality clients expect.
The Generative AI Ethics Guide provides a checklist to help safeguard confidentiality, verify the accuracy of AI-generated output and maintain compliance with privacy laws. It also highlights the need to confirm that the use of AI does not jeopardize professional integrity or lead to conflicts of interest.
5. COVU
COVU, the AI-native leader in insurance customer management and risk advisory, today announced that it has increased its Series A to $22 million after successfully hitting key milestones, bringing its total funding to date to $32 million.
Originally structured as a milestone-based financing, due to strong investor demand, it was expanded to $10 million and became oversubscribed. The round was led by Benhamou Global Ventures (BGV), the lead investor from COVU’s initial Series A, with participation from True Global Ventures (TGV) as a new investor. In addition to this funding, COVU has secured access to additional venture debt, further strengthening its financial position to scale AI innovation and expand its services for insurance agencies and partners.
This announcement follows COVU’s previously announced $12.5 million Series A, and the company is now in the process of securing over $30 million in additional debt financing to further scale its platform.
6. EY
The EY organization today announces a strategic alliance between Zscaler, Inc., a leader in cloud security, and Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) (Alliance). The Alliance aims to help address network architecture challenges with secured and simplified cloud-delivered services.
Through the Alliance, EY US leverages Zscaler’s services to help strengthen the security posture of institutions and build a more resilient infrastructure against cyberattacks. With more organizations choosing to go mobile and digital, this strategic partnership is designed to help clients extend their network and security capabilities, creating fast and secure connections between users and applications, independent of device, location or network.
By combining EY teams’ consulting experience with Zscaler’s flagship cloud security solution, the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange™ platform, the Alliance aims to help support the development of a modern workplace by helping safely and securely navigate digital transformation journeys toward a mobile and cloud-first world.
7. FiscalNote
FiscalNote Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NOTE), a leading AI-driven enterprise SaaS technology provider of policy and global intelligence, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to divest two portfolio companies within its Global Intelligence business, Oxford Analytica and Dragonfly, to Dow Jones, a global news and information provider and division of News Corp, for total consideration of $40 million, continuing FiscalNote’s ongoing strategic shift to focus on its core Policy platform. The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2025, subject to receipt of antitrust clearance in Austria and other customary closing conditions. The transaction is not subject to any financing condition.
The resulting net proceeds provide FiscalNote a return of capital that helps reduce its senior term loan and strengthens its balance sheet while further simplifying the business as it reduces complexity and drives more productivity, efficiency, and profitability.
Oxford Analytica, acquired by FiscalNote in February 2021, produces geopolitical analysis and provides advisory services to help customers understand and respond to political, economic, and societal risks. Dragonfly, acquired by FiscalNote in January 2023, provides forward-looking global security intelligence and data that customers utilize to keep operations, personnel, and assets safe. The Oxford Analytica and Dragonfly businesses have offered their products independently of FiscalNote’s core products. Oxford Analytica and Dragonfly are each primarily based in the United Kingdom.
8. Libretto
Libretto, the innovative advice platform empowering financial advisors and family offices with total wealth financial planning and investment software, today announced a new feature enabling advisors to generate personalized, graphic-rich, white-label client letters with the click of a button.
The client letter is designed to help advisors deliver personalized advice at scale. From within any client’s strategy, advisors can open the client letter builder, select a template, and create a custom table of contents with topics addressing the client’s specific needs. From there, Libretto takes care of writing the narrative and inserting client-friendly charts and graphics so that the client receives a bespoke whitepaper addressing their unique situation. Beneath the hood, the letters combine the consistency and accuracy of Libretto’s proprietary knowledge engine with additional personalization enabled by generative AI. The resulting letters help clients understand and visualize their financial situations, and advisors can use these materials to embed personalized narratives into post-meeting follow-ups, quarterly reports, and annual reviews.
9. Savvy Wealth
Savvy Wealth Inc., a digital-first platform for financial advisors centered around modernizing human financial advice, today welcomes Eric Hurkman as its first chief technology officer (CTO). Hurkman joins Savvy Wealth to lead the continued evolution of its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technology platform, which powers the growth of independent advisors and advisory teams and helps them serve the comprehensive needs of high-net-worth clients.
As Savvy Wealth’s national affiliate registered investment advisor (RIA), Savvy Advisors (Savvy) has grown its team to over 40 financial advisors. Hurkman will be responsible for driving product innovation within the Savvy Wealth platform, supporting its growth and scalability, and improving the user experience for Savvy’s advisors and their clients. Over the next 12 to 18 months, Hurkman will also lead the expansion of Savvy Wealth’s product development, design, engineering and AI teams.
Hurkman is a career software engineer with over a dozen years’ experience building and leading engineering teams and developing software in the fintech industry. Most recently, he spent over four years as a vice president of engineering at Carta, where he led the development of its venture capital solutions. Hurkman had previously joined Carta early on, where he built out its equity management and investor services platforms and engineering teams. His prior experience includes CTO at Say Technologies, a financial services platform acquired by Robinhood, and DrChrono, an electronic health records platform for doctors. He also served as vice president of engineering at Maven Clinic, a women’s and family health company.
10. ThetaRay
ThetaRay, a global leader in Cognitive AI Financial Crime Compliance solutions, today unveiled a groundbreaking industry report on Cognitive AI, a transformative technology that is redefining financial crime compliance. This report, part of a comprehensive series delving into advanced risk detection methodologies, explores the core principles of Cognitive AI and underscores ThetaRay’s pioneering role in this emerging field.
Cognitive AI represents a revolutionary shift in artificial intelligence, emulating human cognitive processes such as reasoning, learning, and context awareness. By leveraging advanced machine learning and natural language processing, Cognitive AI delivers unmatched precision and adaptability in detecting and mitigating against financial crime. This innovative technology bridges the gap between human expertise and machine capabilities, establishing a new industry standard.
The paper outlines the fundamental principles of Cognitive AI, positioning it as a major advancement in its application in the risk management landscape. Unlike traditional AI systems, which are designed for specific, narrowly defined tasks, Cognitive AI mirrors the depth and flexibility of human cognition. It enables machines to interpret nuanced and complex data, to provide outputs with contextual understanding, and continuously evolve to keep pace with shifting environments.
11. Zeta
Zeta, a leader in modern card processing, launched Selene – an AI-powered assistant that transforms how issuers handle customer service. Built with advanced Generative AI and enterprise-grade security, Selene automates the most common support interactions that traditionally burden contact centres.
Selene is designed to undertake 100% of customer service calls, reduce call volumes, handle cardholder inquiries without wait times, and instantly scale to handle spikes in volume. For cardholders, it can deliver instant 24/7 assistance, natural human-like conversations that maintain context, and personalized support across voice and chat channels.
