(Bloomberg) — Wealth managers keen to stay relevant in the age of artificial intelligence may soon find that clients with a mere $1 million in liquid assets are no longer worth spending human hours on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mass-affluent client now gets something close to private-banking quality from AI,\u201d said Debasish Patnaik, senior partner McKinsey & Co. That not only \u201cstrips the value from the advisor whose role was standardized advice,\u201d but it also means \u201cthe kind of person hired into wealth management changes fundamentally,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n
The assessment implies that individuals with liquid assets between $100,000 and $1,000,000 \u2014 broadly defined as the mass affluent within the industry \u2014 could soon be handed over to AI. Instead, human wealth managers keen to show they can do better than AI need to focus their talents on the emotional needs of the truly rich, Patnaik\u2019s analysis implies.<\/p>\n
The prediction comes as financial professionals everywhere struggle to interpret how AI will upend<\/a> their careers. Signals from the industry and those advising it, meanwhile, aren\u2019t always consistent. And in wealth management, there are even signs that AI is creating hiring needs as firms seize on the promise of extra productivity to expand.<\/p>\n