With wealth management firms racing to capture AI-driven productivity and efficiency gains, Cambridge Investment Research is touting an industry first: the implementation of an agentic-AI-driven direct account opening tool. The firm reports internal testing shows this “digital associate” delivers in 17 minutes what previously took a small team over nine days to accomplish – without compromising accuracy or precision.
“With the application of agentic AI, the future of wealth management will see advisors and associates spending less time on administrative tasks. Our goal is not to replace associates, but to allow them more time to deliver high quality, personalized service to more clients,” said Sean Van Moorleghem, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Cambridge. “While we are still in the early stages of rolling out our Cambridge solutions, we’re thrilled to see such significant results. Our team has put the work in, partnering with AI experts for product development, conducting constant beta testing and fine-tuning these tools to perform consistently at the highest levels of accuracy.”
Right now, the Cambridge digital associate’s functionality – which can match a year’s worth of account-opening productivity in two hours – is limited to direct account opening. However, the firm reports that brokerage account opening capabilities are expected to launch shortly. Ultimately, the firm’s goal is to deploy an integrated team of human and digital associates that will work together to elevate service and support across the organization.
“Having this productivity-building resource at our disposal allows us to get advisors up and running in our system quickly while still having the capacity to provide hands-on support for the more complex aspects of their transition,” said Valarie Vest, Cambridge’s Executive Vice President and Chief Experience Officer. “Our ongoing investment in innovation enhances our culture and ability to deliver the level of support our advisors deserve.”
