YOUR BUSINESS
real client files, and now everybody is on the defensive instead of building something good together.
Your compliance officer is not the enemy here. They are the person who can tell you, in five minutes, whether a tool is actually a safe place for client data, and how to document it the right way so you are covered. That conversation takes far less time up front than the one you have after something goes wrong.
What to do: Before you build a new AI workflow, talk to your compliance officer first( not last). Look at them as a partner, not a roadblock. They’ re here to help you move faster the right way, not to hamper you after the fact.
10. AI was never about replacing people.
Advisors constantly ask me whether AI means smaller teams. That’ s the wrong question.
The firms getting this right are not shrinking. They are handing their paraplanners and client service associates better tools so the busywork stops eating up the whole day. The people on the team get to do the work only a person can do, and they often accelerate their career paths as a result.
So you’ re not actually going to fire people because you think AI can do their job. Instead, you’ re going to teach your people to use the technology so they can do more of the work that actually matters.
Here’ s The Bottom Line
I’ ve talked with people who have been personally burned by these AI issues. Perhaps they pasted a client’ s data somewhere it never should have gone. Perhaps they turned to a made-up statistic that almost made it out the door on company correspondence. Maybe a whole weekend they spent downloading workflow apps ended in frustration instead of progress.
You do not need to learn these lessons the hard way. Save this list. Put it in front of your team. Ask the AI itself how it would solve these problems when it comes to your own practice. That is the feedback loop, and it makes you sharper every time you run it.
Think of these 10 things, and you will begin to use AI like it deserves to be used— carefully, with your eyes open. Skip them, and you will be left behind by the advisor down the street who did not. I’ m MattGPT. See you out there
MATT " MATTGPT " HALLORAN is chief evangelist at Zocks, an AI platform built specifically for financial advisors. He speaks, podcasts and creates content at the intersection of AI and wealth management. Find more at https:// zocks. io / learn-more.
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32 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2026 WWW. FA-MAG. COM