FutureProof Citywide | SoBe Stage | March 8
The AI Demo Drop session at FutureProof Citywide wasn’t just another parade of shiny tools—it was a compressed look into the near future of financial advice. Seven firms, seven minutes each, no fluff. The brief was simple: show how artificial intelligence is actually being applied inside advisory businesses today.
What emerged wasn’t hype—it was a clear shift. AI in wealth management is moving beyond experimentation into infrastructure. These tools aren’t replacing advisors; they’re becoming the operating system beneath them—handling data synthesis, client communication, behavioural insight, and decision support at a scale no human team could match.
Chaired by industry thinkers including Diana Cabrices and Brian Portnoy, the session struck a balance between innovation and application. The takeaway was unmistakable: the firms that integrate AI intelligently will define the next decade of advice.
Slant, led by co-founders Thomas Clawson and Max Metcalf, delivered one of the most compelling demonstrations of the session. Their proposition is deceptively simple: take the overwhelming complexity of client financial data and turn it into clear, actionable insight—instantly.
Slant’s AI engine ingests fragmented datasets—portfolios, cash flows, liabilities, tax exposures—and synthesises them into dynamic, advisor-friendly outputs. What stood out was not just aggregation, but interpretation. The platform surfaces what matters: risks, opportunities, and recommended actions, framed in a way advisors can immediately communicate to clients.
In practice, this removes hours of manual analysis and replaces it with real-time intelligence. Advisors move from “data processors” to “decision interpreters.” For firms scaling advice across hundreds or thousands of households, that shift is transformative.
Nevis: The AI Co-Pilot for Advisory Firms
Nevis, under CEO Mark Swan, positioned itself as the “AI co-pilot” for advisory businesses. Where Slant focuses on insight, Nevis focuses on execution.
Their platform integrates across CRM systems, planning tools, and communication channels to automate workflows that typically consume advisor time—meeting prep, follow-ups, compliance notes, and client summaries. The AI doesn’t just record activity; it anticipates what needs to happen next.
One standout capability was automated meeting intelligence. Advisors can walk out of a client conversation and instantly receive a structured summary, action points, and even draft follow-up communications. This is operational leverage at its finest—freeing advisors to spend more time in high-value conversations rather than administrative catch-up.
Nevis represents a broader trend: AI as invisible infrastructure. When done well, it doesn’t feel like a tool—it feels like your firm suddenly runs better.
Perscient: Intelligence at the Portfolio Level
Perscient, represented by Ben Hunt and Jeremy Radcliffe, brought a different angle: AI applied directly to portfolio construction and investment intelligence.
Their platform analyses vast datasets—market signals, fund performance, macro trends—and translates them into advisor-ready insights. But crucially, it doesn’t overwhelm with noise. Perscient’s value lies in filtering signal from chaos, presenting advisors with contextualised recommendations rather than raw data.
In a world where information is abundant but clarity is scarce, this becomes a competitive edge. Advisors using tools like Perscient can make faster, more informed decisions—and, importantly, explain them more effectively to clients.
This is AI not as a black box, but as a transparent partner in the investment process.
Advice.ai: Scaling Personalisation
Advice.ai, led by Brian Pierson and Kevin Knull, tackled one of the biggest bottlenecks in advice: personalised client communication at scale.
Their platform enables advisors to deliver highly tailored messages—updates, nudges, insights—to entire client bases without losing the feel of one-to-one interaction. AI analyses client data, behaviour, and preferences to craft communications that resonate individually.
This is particularly powerful in moments that matter—market volatility, tax deadlines, life events—where timely, relevant communication can define the client experience.
Advice.ai’s broader implication is clear: the future of advice isn’t just about better planning—it’s about better ongoing engagement. And AI is the only way to deliver that consistently at scale.
CurrentClient: Rethinking Client Intelligence
CurrentClient, founded by Dustin Belliston, focused on the heart of every advisory firm: the client relationship.
Rather than acting as a traditional CRM, CurrentClient uses AI to transform client data into living intelligence. It identifies patterns—who needs attention, who is at risk, where opportunities exist—and prompts advisors to act proactively.
The platform effectively answers a question most firms struggle with: Where should I focus my time today? By prioritising client interactions based on real-time data, advisors can move from reactive service to proactive relationship management.
In an industry built on trust, this kind of insight isn’t just efficient—it’s invaluable.
VastAdvisor: Scaling the Advisor Model
VastAdvisor, led by Ian Karnell, addressed a structural challenge in wealth management: scalability.
Their platform combines AI-driven automation, client servicing tools, and workflow optimisation to enable advisors to serve more clients without sacrificing quality. It’s about expanding capacity without diluting experience.
What differentiates VastAdvisor is its holistic approach. Rather than solving a single problem, it integrates multiple layers of the advisory process—onboarding, servicing, communication—into a unified system enhanced by AI.
For growing firms, this is critical. The traditional model—hire more advisors to serve more clients—breaks down quickly. Platforms like VastAdvisor offer a different path: scale through technology, not headcount.
The Bigger Picture: From Tools to Infrastructure
What made this session powerful wasn’t any single product—it was the collective signal.
Across Slant, Nevis, Perscient, Advice.ai, CurrentClient, and VastAdvisor, a pattern emerged:
- AI is collapsing time—tasks that took hours now take seconds
- AI is enhancing judgement—not replacing it
- AI is enabling scale without losing personalisation
- AI is shifting advisors from operators to strategist
And perhaps most importantly, these tools are no longer theoretical. They are live, deployable, and increasingly essential.
As Brian Portnoy has long argued, the future of advice is not just about better numbers—it’s about better human outcomes. The irony is that AI, often seen as impersonal, may be the very thing that enables more human, more meaningful client relationships.
The advisors who embrace this shift won’t just be more efficient—they’ll be more relevant.
Final Thought
The AI Demo Drop wasn’t about technology for its own sake. It was about what happens when intelligence—real, usable, embedded intelligence—becomes part of every layer of an advisory business.
The firms on that stage weren’t pitching features. They were quietly redefining what an advisory firm looks like in 2026 and beyond.
And if this session was any indication, the future has already arrived.
