Delivery of investor content at scale was named as one of the largest opportunities within generative artificial intelligence for wealth managers in Asia, according to a report by Accenture.

Generative artificial intelligence (genAI) is increasingly ubiquitous in financial services, including wealth management. Optimism is high with the delivery of enhanced investor content, such as market outlooks, analyst reports and investment proposals, seen as one of the largest revenue opportunities, according to the third edition of professional service firm Accenture’s «Future of Asia Wealth Management» report. 

«In a content-centric world, it’s often said ‘every company is a media company’ – that’s especially true for RMs who are under pressure to source, analyze, and distribute investor content in near real time,» said David Wilson, managing director and wealth management lead for growth markets at Accenture. 

Lacking Customization, Regularity

Despite the importance of content, clients are dissatisfied with the current state of affairs. Nearly half said they do not get relevant, personalized content from their firms while 37 percent said firms do not send content regularly.

«Relationship managers (RM) didn't sign up to be full-time content creators; the only way firms can make this aggressive customer experience-driven growth model work is to deploy gen AI tools to streamline some of the process and keep investors engaged,» Wilson said.

Internal Misalignment

Still, nearly the whole industry is excited about the potential of genAI. According to the report, 94 percent of senior executives and RMs are excited about the impact that the new technology will bring to their firms. 

However, there is often disagreement about deployment. The top areas of misalignment between senior executives and RMs were related to prospecting, onboarding and advisory. 

Widespread Usage

Currently, 73 percent of RMs already use genAI professionally while 66 percent of clients already use it in some capacity. In terms of problems holding back firms from genAI adoption, challenges with governance and operating models (54 percent) were cited as the most common issue followed by IT infrastructure (46 percent) and data privacy and regulatory compliance (38 percent).

Accenture’s report is based on a survey of more than 4,500 investors and 650 RMs alongside 16 interviews with senior executives of wealth firms across 10 APAC markets, including Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The survey was conducted in December 2023 and January 2024.