The financial services industry is undergoing a seismic shift, driven by the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. This transformation is not just about adopting new tools, but about fundamentally rethinking how financial professionals interact with clients and manage their workflows. As financial service professionals struggle to maintain in an increasingly competitive landscape, AI has become a key enabler of productivity.
On a daily basis, professionals are inundated with vast amounts of data and communication, and it’s leading to a loss of productivity. In fact, according to recent reports, financial advisors spend nearly 60% of their time on non-revenue-generating activities, such as administrative tasks and data management. This inefficiency not only affects productivity but also detracts from client relationships.
The bottom line is traditional methods of communicating with clients and handling internal tasks are becoming increasingly inadequate. There’s simply too much that needs to be done.
The Promise of AI
AI-powered tools can analyze client data to provide personalized investment recommendations, predict market trends, and even automate compliance processes. While streamlining these processes is important to financial service professionals, it’s only half the battle.
Until recently, communication remained a significant challenge in the financial sector, with the threat of missed deadlines and delayed client responses constantly looming. A new tool called Belt set out to address this problem.
Belt is an AI-powered platform designed to streamline communication workflows and alleviate the burden of email overload. Belt’s AI capabilities monitor communications from trusted contacts, extracting and summarizing requests into AI-suggested tasks. This ensures that financial professionals never miss an important email or client request, allowing them to respond promptly and efficiently.
Client relations are at the heart of the financial services industry. Improving client relationships by providing timely and personalized interactions can alleviate the burden of overcommunication on professionals, and give them a competitive edge.
“Our origin story began by listening to numerous business professionals, who voiced concerns about the overwhelming volume of daily emails and chats and the risk of missing important messages or not responding promptly. We built Belt to monitor communication and identify requests from trusted contacts, providing a central calendar that integrates tasks, meetings, huddles, and deadlines because every knowledge worker needs an effective calendar,” said Keith Lipman, CEO and Co-founder of Belt.
The Broader Impact
The integration of AI in financial services is not just about improving individual tasks but about transforming the entire operational model of firms. According to a study by Deloitte, firms that effectively implement AI can achieve a 20-30% increase in operational efficiency. This not only leads to cost savings but also enhances the overall quality of service provided to clients.
Belt, for instance, offers workflows to schedule, delegate, and follow up on tasks. It alerts users when they’ve missed an email response and provides enterprise reporting on completed work. This comprehensive approach ensures that financial professionals can maintain high levels of responsiveness and efficiency.
As AI technologies continue to evolve, their impact on the financial services industry will only grow. The future will likely see even more sophisticated AI applications, making the integration of AI in financial services a strategic imperative. Financial firms that embrace the shift will be well-positioned to thrive in an increasingly competitive landscape.
