How to make the best use of AI in your business

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been transformative for countless industries in recent years.

But for financial advisers and planners, the technology has the potential to be truly game-changing.

From automating day-to-day processes to enhancing client engagement, AI has opened up countless new ways to drive growth and maximise efficiency. 

So what exactly is AI and what can it do for your business? 

Let’s take a closer look.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines, which lets them carry out tasks that usually require human cognitive functions, such as:

• Learning
• Reasoning
• Problem-solving
• Understanding natural language

How can AI transform your business?

AI can streamline and optimise processes at every level of your business, thereby driving efficiency and reducing operational costs. For example:

Personal development planning

Your people are one of your biggest assets, so focusing on their personal development is really important if you want to keep hold of them and enable them to thrive.

AI can help you create effective personal development plans for colleagues by assessing their skills and identifying their strengths and weaknesses. It can then recommend learning paths and resources for each individual.

These recommendations can be based on each person’s unique career objectives and learning preferences, which can be far more effective than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach across your business.

AI could also be used to track and measure skills development over time, so you can easily identify skills gaps within your business, help people develop their capabilities and optimise training schedules so they fit in with their day-to-day role.

Automate workflows

Running a business can involve carrying out many repetitive, manual tasks that are prone to human error, such as processing invoices, writing reports and entering data.

AI technology can streamline these processes for your business so it’s more accurate, involves less manual effort and frees up your key personnel so they can focus on more complex tasks that can add genuine value to your operations, such as speaking with clients face-to-face.

Improved data processing

AI can also help your business quickly get the information you need out of lengthy documents, handwritten text, audio recordings and text written in foreign languages.

That can make a huge difference when it comes to reporting and making decisions across your business, and save huge amounts of time if you’re working on tasks such as logging written documents or drafting meeting notes.

Data-driven decision making

If you gather extensive client data and management information, gaining meaningful insights and establishing causal relationships between different variables can be tricky and time-consuming. But AI can help you gain insights from data that you might not otherwise be able to identify.

You can employ AI-driven advanced analytics to identify trends, patterns and anomalies in datasets, and use predictive models to forecast future trends, demand, and market changes.

With more accurate data entering and processing systems in place, you can make more informed, proactive decisions and allocate your resources in a smarter and more effective way.

Personalising the client experience

AI can analyse and interpret vast amounts of client data in a way that allows you to offer each individual a highly personalised experience.

By understanding people’s behaviour, their preferences and their circumstances, you can tailor your client interactions and offers accordingly, and offer them relevant and timely messages in a way that suits them.

That can in turn lead to improved conversion rates, greater client satisfaction and loyalty, and potentially more client referrals.

Chatbots and virtual assistants

Chatbots and virtual assistants are able to handle routine enquiries from clients straight away, and talk them through purchasing decisions.

That can free up considerable time for your team and allow them to focus on more complex tasks instead.

Lead scoring and qualification

AI gives businesses the ability to quickly score and qualify leads based on their attributes and interactions with your brand. You can then concentrate your time and resources on those leads that have the greatest chance of converting.

Content creation

Our Hatch tool can help you streamline your marketing activity, for example by automating emails, tracking and forecasting pipeline value and managing adviser performance both on customer service and conversion.

Meanwhile, generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and DALL·E enable you to create images and copy such as blogs and emails in a matter of seconds.

How to make the best use of AI in your business

Identify specific challenges and goals

What particular pain points in your business would you like to solve? Where would you like to be if these challenges could be overcome?

By answering these questions, you’ll be able to pick appropriate AI tools that genuinely reflect your current challenges and what it is that you want to achieve.

Test AI solutions before full implementation

There’s no need to jump in feet first if you’re adopting AI solutions, so test them on small-scale pilot projects initially. By starting small, you can identify potential challenges and difficulties and assess how well they’re working for you.

Train your team

Make sure your team understands how to use the AI tools you adopt and how they can work alongside this new technology. As AI transforms working processes, it will undoubtedly change much of the day-to-day work your colleagues are required to carry out, so it’s important to bring them along with you.

Associated with this is having the talent and skills in the business to utilise AI. This has been identified by many as a challenge for businesses. New operating models and tools will emerge, businesses need to have access to the knowledge and skills to make the most of them.

Keep informed

AI has moved on in leaps and bounds over the last few months alone, so if you want to make it part of your business operation, it’s important that you evolve your strategy as it continues to advance. 

Stay informed about the latest trends, research and innovations, so every aspect of your business can remain competitive.

With the right AI tools being used to address challenges and priorities across your business, you’ll be in a much stronger position to keep pace with - or steal a march on - your competitors.

Want to find out more about how Hatch can help your business?

Book a demo today and lets talk.