When people discuss artificial intelligence (AI), the conversation is polarised between two camps: those who believe it will destroy humanity, and those who think it will be the catalyst for great advances. My view aligns with the latter – I choose to look beyond the hype to work out how its practical implications can help create efficiencies, and I see huge potential for application of AI within the pensions industry in three areas.

Everyone lacks time. If we’ve learned one thing about AI and machine learning (ML) models, it is we know it is not a perfect science, but it can save time. Think about how much time and money is spent by financial services firms documenting call reports and updating client relationship management systems. Here, small gains make an enormous difference.  

AI has the ability to produce meeting summaries, meeting minutes, and call reports. If, for example, one person can save 30 minutes after every meeting, and they have 100 meetings a year, they save 3,000 minutes – equivalent to more than a working week. Apply this across a team, and you create hundreds of extra hours of capacity. Now, teams can ensure they spend their time focusing on working strategically with clients and doing what they do best – building deep relationships.

Financial services firms struggle to ensure there is consistency across teams speaking to clients. They can send multiple people to a meeting for oversight, but again this requires more time – which we know everyone lacks. AI can help objectively measure the content delivered in a meeting, and guarantee the right message was delivered. Think how much stronger a team is when everyone is delivering a consistent message.  

We all need practice, from the CEO to the most recent joiner. AI and ML models can be calibrated to provide feedback on a presentation, helping the presenter refine and improve the message they want to land. Now, when someone asks to practise a presentation with a team member, they can receive the nuanced feedback that will help take the material from good to great. The marginal gains achieved after each presentation for each team member are significant, and presentation coaches can then focus on style, confidence, tone and delivery.

Finally, by capturing and analysing feedback and discussions within presentation, AI has the capacity to objectively and transparently document that the customer understands a financial product – including, for example, the risks, potential returns, and how this will ultimately help them achieve their individual goals. This has wide-ranging implications for the retail market. It is exactly what the Financial Conduct Authority is hoping to achieve with the Consumer Duty, for which implementation plans were published in January this year: “The Duty means consumers should get communications they can understand, products and services that meet their needs and offer fair value, and they get the customer support they need, when they need it.”  

The age of AI has already arrived, and it is starting to drive significant changes to the way that businesses operate, work with customers and engage with the broader market. I’ve picked examples of how I am already seeing application in our industry. However, I know of several more and am sure there are many I haven’t even thought of yet. Our industry must ask some honest questions: what’s consuming time and a disproportionate amount of human capital? Now is the time to take the first step and let AI start doing some of the heavy lifting. 

This article was fist published in the Future of Pensions report by Raconteur in The Times on 29 June 2023. Click here to see the full report: https://res.cloudinary.com/yumyoshojin/image/upload/v1687962365/pdf/FoP_AW_CM.pdf