{"id":614220,"date":"2026-04-18T03:04:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T03:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/614220\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T03:04:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T03:04:32","slug":"schwab-ai-push-to-include-client-facing-ai-agents-in-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/614220\/","title":{"rendered":"Schwab AI Push To Include Client-Facing AI Agents in June"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Schwab made it clear the country\u2019s largest custodian is going heavy into artificial intelligence in its first-quarter results, including announcing increased investment in its AI tax platform, Wealth.com. The overall earnings results were slightly below estimates.<\/p>\n

CEO Rick Wurster ran through a list of AI-related initiatives that the Westlake, Texas-based firm is investing in and planning to launch over the coming year. The push comes after Schwab and other financial services firm stocks<\/a> got wacked earlier this year amid fears that AI movers such as Altruist\u2019s AI Tax platform Hazel would undercut their businesses.<\/p>\n

One such move was to join a $65 million Series B fundraising round for Wealth.com, a Phoenix-based AI tax platform for wealth management firms. Schwab, who already made a minority strategic investment in the firm in April 2025, joined other private equity firms and investors, including Google Ventures and Citi Ventures.<\/p>\n

Related:Sanctuary Adds $800M Breakaway From Merrill Lynch<\/a><\/p>\n

Wurster said Schwab will introduce its first AI-enabled assistants for clients over chat and voice in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis capability will answer general questions and will start to test how clients can interact with AI agents,\u201d Wurster said on an earnings call. \u201cWe are ensuring handoffs to human agents and strict guardrails.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other AI projects include an AI-driven research tool for markets and investments, already in beta with employees and set to roll out to clients in 2026. Wurster also mentioned generative search capabilities for clients on Schwab.com, as well as AI agent capabilities for financial advisors in its advisor services division.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI will accelerate our strategy on the growth front,\u201d Wurster said. \u201cAI opens up new distribution channels and opens up new channels with clients that we have not been able to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said that the firm has found that \u201chalf of clients are willing to pay for AI financial tools,” and pushed back on the idea that AI may cut into firm revenue if fewer human-led services are needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone is going to move cash with an advisor, we would charge, and we would charge for an agentic AI option,\u201d Wurster said. \u201cI am incredibly bullish about our ability to increase our revenue, no matter the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wurster noted that Schwab was working on the initiatives with a \u201cleading AI firm,\u201d but did not name the company. Both Anthropic and OpenAI have announced a focus on the wealth management<\/a> sector this year.<\/p>\n

The AI focus came as Schwab reported a record $11.77 trillion in total client assets, a 19% year-over-year increase.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related:Deals & Moves: Mariner Adds Two Teams of $500M to W-2 Channel<\/a><\/p>\n

Overall revenue, however, came in at $6.48 billion, up 16% year-over-year, but slightly below analyst estimates of $6.51 billion, according to Seeking Alpha. Schwab shares ended the day on Thursday down 7.63%.<\/p>\n

The firm\u2019s total net new assets were $139.9 billion, up 5.7% from a year earlier and above the $123.5 billion analysts estimated. Adjusted net income was up 29% to $2.6 billion, or $1.43 per share.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the human-led, advisor side of the table, Wurster said Schwab would be opening 12 new branches in 2026 to serve clients.<\/p>\n

The firm also leaned further into cryptocurrency, which it also offers to investors. On Thursday, it introduced a new direct spot trading option to retail clients for Bitcoin and Ethereum. The offering, called Schwab Crypto, will compete with Robinhood, and charge 75 basis points on the dollar value of each trade.<\/p>\n

It will be offered through Charles Schwab Premier Bank and rolled out with a client waitlist.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles Schwab made it clear the country\u2019s largest custodian is going heavy into artificial intelligence in its first-quarter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-614220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}