AI will shift work toward human judgment

Roger Brosch argued on April 13 that artificial intelligence will push advisers toward more human work, not remove them from the job. (professionaladviser.com) In his Professional Adviser column, Brosch said tools for note-taking, report writing and file checking are already cutting back-office work that used to consume adviser time. He wrote that his first assumption was that firms would simply use those hours to see more clients. (professionaladviser.com) Brosch is chief executive of Foster Denovo, a United Kingdom wealth management and financial advice firm he co-founded, according to the company’s leadership page. He has written repeatedly in Professional Adviser that advice businesses should use technology without dropping the personal side of client relationships. (fosterdenovo.com, professionaladviser.com) His argument is that the work left after automation is the part machines struggle with: diagnosing unclear business problems, weighing trade-offs and handling disagreement between people with different incentives. In advice firms, that means more time in conversations where clients, colleagues and decision-makers do not want exactly the same thing. (professionaladviser.com) That view lands as British regulators are trying to steer firms toward wider use of artificial intelligence without loosening accountability. The Financial Conduct Authority said in its 2024 artificial intelligence update, published on its site in 2025 and 2026, that existing rules on governance, consumer duty and oversight still apply when firms use artificial intelligence. (fca.org.uk, fca.org.uk) The Financial Conduct Authority has also opened an Artificial Intelligence Lab and started a longer-term review of artificial intelligence in retail financial services, with recommendations due to its board in summer 2026. That gives firms an incentive to frame artificial intelligence as support for advisers rather than a substitute for regulated judgment. (fca.org.uk, fca.org.uk) Other industry voices are making a similar case from the client side. The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards highlighted a March 11, 2026 piece arguing that automation raises the bar for human advisers by making empathy, trust and emotional guidance more central to the service. (cfp.net) Not everyone sees the balance the same way. Some commentators have argued that artificial intelligence could eventually outperform many human advisers on investment decisions, especially where emotion hurts returns. (foxbusiness.com) Brosch’s column takes the opposite bet: if software keeps swallowing the typing, formatting and checking, the scarce skill in advice will be the person in the room making sense of competing human needs. (professionaladviser.com)