The Intermediary – June 2025 - Flipbook - Page 83
T E C H N O L O GY
Opinion
Architecting your
business for an
AI-driven future
I
n the financial services sector,
most applications of artificial
intelligence (AI) seek to
enhance existing processes
to create efficiency, and the
adoption curve is already
steep. Recent joint research by the
Bank of England and the Financial
Conduct Authority (FCA) found that
75 % of UK financial services firms are
using AI, up from 58 % two years ago.
Regulators are also signalling a clear
tech-positive stance. In January, the
FCA convened 115 experts for its first
AI Sprint, to help shape a principlesbased framework. Then in April,
it proposed a live AI testing service,
giving firms a regulatory sandbox for
consumer-facing models ahead of a
planned launch in September 2025.
Most notably, the FCA has
chosen not to impose prescriptive
AI rules, instead stating that
existing accountability regimes and
outcomes-based regulation remain
sufficient as the technology continues
to evolve. This represents a clear
alignment of regulatory priorities and
technological capability.
Most independent financial adviser
(IFA) firms utilising AI are doing
so tactically – report draing, call
transcriptions, customer relationship
management (CRM) data-entry,
etcetera. While adoption and the
overall impact is clearly advantageous,
treating AI as a bolt-on efficiency
tool misses the longer-term strategic
opportunity – a bit like businesses
from the 1990s thinking a brochureware website was ‘going digital’.
Why? Because there is a larger
transformation underway where, in
the future, AI agents will become the
primary way in which firms, clients,
and stakeholders interact. This marks
a fundamental shi from traditional
human-driven workflows to AI-driven
services. In other words, a shi from
human-first to AI-first interactions.
Now, despite the progress of
AI advancement and the scale
of opportunity it promises, the
transition to AI-first won’t happen
overnight. However, if nationals and
networks – and by extension advisers
– are to unlock and benefit from the
true disruption and promise of AI,
they will need to not only adopt, but
architect their business around AI.
What does this mean?
It means having a cohesive
strategy that considers technology
interoperability, data sovereignty
and AI, and its application to specific
business use cases.
Advisers have historically treated
data capture as admin rather than
an asset and opportunity. In an
agentic world, every field – fact-find,
affordability, portfolio information –
must be accessible, easily searched and
understood, and managed with clear
consent protocols. Only then can AI
agents reason over it to derive insight
and actions, without the requirement
for endless analogue-to-digital data
transformation and back-and-forth
communication.
This will require a mindset and
commercial – as well as technical –
shi, particularly where a conflict
exists between vertically-integrated
and antiquated business models, and
the value proposition that is in the
clients’ best interests.
This conflict is further amplified
by AI favouring an IFA model,
when the goal is to optimise for
beer client outcomes, as restricted
models will lack the product and
solution range needed – and the usual
commercial and compliance rationale
for restricted propositions will no
longer apply.
ANGUS MACNEE
is CEO at ValidPath and Rimbal
This is a key point and one we
believe at ValidPath: independent
financial advice is the best framework
to support positive client outcomes,
and the only framework if you are
striving for the best outcomes in an
AI-driven and AI-first world.
In short, integrating the odd
meeting transcription tool into today’s
workflow is not enough. You must
architect your entire business so that
AI agents can transact with your
data, processes and people safely and
at scale.
The internet rewired distribution.
Platforms compressed fund costs.
Consumer Duty raised the bar on
outcomes. AI agents will combine all
three at once, redefining how value is
created and delivered. The question,
therefore, for every firm is blunt: will
your systems be fluent in this new
lingua franca, or will they still require
manual translation?
At Rimbal and ValidPath, we believe
this isn’t just an opportunity – it’s
a responsibility. Advisers and their
agents will continue to play a vital
role, and those that architect their
business for an AI-driven future will
support beer client outcomes.
Embracing AI is not about replacing
the human element, it is about
enhancing it, and over the longerterm, shiing human effort from
production to supervision. Those that
do not plan for AI risk watching from
the sidelines as the next generation
of advisers, and their agents, take
the field.
Rimbal and ValidPath will continue
to invest in AI-driven infrastructure
for advisers. We are excited about the
future of financial advice. ●
June 2025 | The Intermediary
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