Artificial intelligence has moved from novelty to necessity in financial advice, with a new study showing that a majority of advisors who use it reclaim at least four hours weekly—the equivalent of more than 200 hours, or 26 full workdays, annually. The findings come from AssetMark's 2026 Advisor Insights: Artificial Intelligence Report, released September 15, 2026, which polled 400 U.S.-based advisors.
According to the report, 85% of advisors have integrated AI into their practices to some degree, and 80% expect to deepen that usage over the next year. The industry has clearly moved past the question of whether to adopt AI; the more pressing issue is how thoroughly it will be woven into daily workflows. "The AI conversation in wealth management is moving past adoption," said Alex Pape, chief product and technology officer at Concord, California-based AssetMark. "Giving an advisor four or more hours back each week is meaningful, but the real opportunity is what they can do with that capacity: spend more time with clients, apply their judgment to more complex problems and focus on the work where human expertise matters most."
Where AI is doing the work
Among adopters, the most common uses are generating meeting notes or summaries (45%), automated performance reports or dashboards (43%), research summarization (42%), risk analysis (42%), and workflow and scheduling automation (40%). Rather than clustering around a single killer app, AI is permeating a wide range of analytical, operational, and communications tasks, reducing friction across the board.
Advisors see benefits beyond efficiency: 50% cite improved work quality, 43% point to business growth, 41% note better client experience, and 40% credit increased firm revenue. Additionally, 85% say AI has helped them expand the types of clients they serve. "Advisors are under increasing pressure to deliver more personalized service while managing greater complexity," said Michael Kim, AssetMark's CEO. "This research reinforces the importance of technology that creates meaningful capacity, fits naturally into the way advisors work and keeps their judgment at the center of the client experience."
RIAs pulling ahead
The report reveals a notable divergence between registered investment advisors (RIAs) and independent advisors affiliated with broker-dealers. Ninety-one percent of RIAs have adopted AI-integrated solutions, versus 81% of broker-dealer-affiliated independents. RIAs are also more likely to anticipate deepening their use—87% expect growth over the next 12 months, compared with 75% of BD-affiliated advisors.
That gap extends into day-to-day applications. Among AI adopters, 49% of RIAs use AI to draft client communications, versus 30% of BD-affiliated advisors. For workflow and scheduling automation, the split is 48% to 35%. On portfolio stress testing, RIAs lead 41% to 25%. This pattern aligns with a broader shift in how advisors evaluate their supporting firms: 69% of respondents said they would consider switching firms if their current firm's AI capabilities lagged competitors. That figure climbs to 78% among advisors managing $500 million or more in assets, a segment where the competitive stakes are highest. For context, see how wealthtech integrations are targeting advisor efficiency across portfolio, content, and account opening.
Human judgment stays at the center
Enthusiasm for AI does not translate into a willingness to delegate consequential decisions. Half of surveyed advisors said they would not trust AI to handle client-facing work. Forty-five percent would not trust it with portfolio decisions, and 43% flagged compliance as an area that should remain outside AI's scope. The emerging model, the report concludes, is one of broader AI use in the background—summarizing, analyzing, and automating—combined with continued advisor ownership of advice, judgment, and client relationships. AssetMark's own Talk Tracks product reflects that logic: the AI tool generates client portfolio talking points while leaving advisors to review, refine, and lead the conversation.
Among the 15% of advisors who have not adopted AI, cost is the least-cited concern. The leading barriers are client confidentiality and data privacy (46%), followed by the time required to learn and implement new tools (43%). The implication, the report argues, is that making AI available is not sufficient; firms need to provide governance, education, and workflow integration to support meaningful adoption. As AI compliance testing jumps 28 points amid SEC scrutiny, firms that fail to integrate AI responsibly may find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.
