Iress isn’t ‘waiting to play catch up’ in AI development

Iress remains steadfast to deliver on its promise of being an incumbent in the financial software market and innovating its technology offerings.

In December, the platform confirmed it is currently underway with its “significant” transformation strategy set to conclude by the end of 2024. This will include a technology uplift for its core trading software, Xplan, by providing improved tools to deliver better customer value, which will be completed by Q1 FY24.

This will be followed by features around artificial intelligence (AI) for financial advisers.

Commenting on a Netwealth podcast, Marcus Price, Iress CEO and managing director, said the firm is still focused on innovating its core technology and getting it “back up to speed”.

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“It’s really about delivering on the promise of being an incumbent, and we have got a responsibility to deliver for our clients. Firstly, just the basics of what they need, but we also need to be thinking about where this business is going to be in 10 or 20 years,” Price explained.

By taking a forward-focused approach to their technology offerings, Iress’ future vision includes providing AI toolkits to advisers to help them grow their business.

“We’ve got to take incumbency very seriously, and we need to bring those changes to the market as opposed to waiting to play catch up,” the chief executive added.

Price reaffirmed that AI is not a threat to advisers, but a tool for them to use for purposes such as producing preliminary reports via ChatGPT.

“I think the platforms, frankly us, need to be thinking about how to provide [AI] toolkits for advisers and people in financial services – it is a technology problem.

“It won’t replace the judgement and knowledge of an adviser necessarily, and particularly the real crafting of something for a particular client. I don’t think it changes that, but it does help them consider more things than they would’ve otherwise considered,” he explained.

Netwealth, which has been actively exploring technology from OpenAI and Microsoft, has already identified financial advice as a key sector set to be an early beneficiary of AI.

Harnessing AI and embedding it in an adviser’s toolkit is crucial, Price argued, such as using ChatGPT to produce preliminary reports.

Moreover, AI’s role will be particularly valuable in investment decision-making when advisers weigh up the most preferable options for a client.

“I think it’s getting increasingly difficult for a human being to understand and consider all the various investment scenarios, stocks and options available to people.”

While advisers may utilise technology to consider investment approaches for clients, the decision still comes down to the trust of a human adviser through a hybrid approach.

Price continued: “You still want someone across the table saying, ‘No, this is okay to invest in. I’ve looked into it, I’ve got this AI tool which ingested 500 exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and these are the five that came out, and I think it’s that one’. You want that.

“I see AI as something we need to be right across at Iress. That’s because we have vast amounts of data all sitting there literally mouldering away, and we can produce considerable insight from that data by ingesting it and actually summarising it for advisers.”