AI to transform wealth management, Microsoft executive says

By Oliver Hirt

ZURICH (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence will bring major upheaval to wealth management, a Microsoft executive said, as the technology's potential to process information vastly reduces the hurdles required to compete with established banks.

AI's ability to condense financial data will allow just a few people to offer services that previously occupied entire teams in a bank, said Martin Moeller, head of AI & GenAI for financial services, EMEA, at Microsoft.

"Generative AI will reshape the competitive landscape," Moeller told Reuters. "AI will, for example, significantly lower the threshold for market entry for startups, similar to what the digitalization and internet wave did decades ago."

Since early 2024, Swedish payment service provider Klarna has been using AI from Microsoft's partner OpenAI which performs the work of 700 employees.

The world's largest asset manager, UBS, also sees great potential for AI. CEO Sergio Ermotti said this month it could boost productivity and make jobs easier.

Moeller said generative AI will reduce costs for newcomers, and it can also help family offices, private wealth managers for the super-rich that compete with wealth managers.

"Banks that have so far been barely active in wealth management could enter the business with the help of AI without having to invest much in customer advisors," he said.

AI's advance is gaining momentum from changing customer behaviour, with young entrepreneurs increasingly willing to manage their investments themselves, Moeller said.

In response, many banks are working to enable customers to independently consolidate information using AI.

"Customers should have access to complex information 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Moeller. "Portfolio construction can also be handled by conventional AI."

AI currently does not advise on products or specific investment decisions, but the next stage of development, so-called "agentic AI", which makes independent decisions without human involvement, is expected to arrive in around two years.

(Reporting by Oliver Hirt, writing by John Revill, editing by Susan Fenton)