Now that AI has become ubiquitous, how are MDRT members incorporating this into their work, and what keeps them up at night about the fast-escalating technology? During a recording of the MDRT Podcast, 11-year MDRT member Nadia Wijatno, CLU, ChFC, and 18-year MDRT member Chi Teng Han, CIAM, ChFC/S, shared the benefits they’ve developed and some of the challenges they see for advisors using AI. Hear the full conversation at mdrt.org/succeeding-struggling-with-ai.

Wijatno: I treat it like an enhancer to my preparation work for meeting my clients. So, if I’m about to update my client about his investment portfolio, I can use ChatGPT to find out the latest updates about the China equity market, for example, and to give me five sources. So that’s good and bad. The good is it’s very quick, so you can get a very quick summary, including sources. The bad is ChatGPT sometimes may not be 100% accurate. You still need to verify. Do your homework and verify first. But it’s good because you feel that you have a second person beside you, like a research assistant, helping you to do all this work. Another example is I’m not very good with designing presentation slides. There’s a lot of software out there that you can buy, but AI can do the job nicely, and the content comes out in a very nice template presentation. In areas that you’re not really good at, you can use AI to help. There was one time that we created a social media schedule using AI, so for things like that AI really saves a lot of time.

Han: One of my pet peeves is doing slides. I like to talk, and I don’t like to do slides, so yes, the workflow with AI is very fast. You literally punch it in, press execute, and then at least you get some decent structure coming out. I also use AI in my workflows if I want to save time, so those are the advantages.

Now, if you ask me what are the disadvantages, I would say if I can use AI, someone else can, and that someone could be the client. So, we have to be aware that over time our clients will also be very adept at using AI to solve their problems. What’s the problem that we solve? Financial planning. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next few years very comprehensive AI systems or programs can be there to suggest to clients what they should do. I think about that all the time. At the rate things are going, a lot of your intellectual property is going to be lost. Large language models train on the internet, and I think there are a lot of content creators who are very worried because their content is just being fed into the AI platform and taken over. What I worry about is whatever I tell my client; the client probably will be able to access and do it himself. But there is a solution: Talk to people who are looking for somebody they can trust. Humans still want to talk to humans. At least that’s what I feel, or do you think that the younger people maybe prefer to just do everything through their thumbs pressing away on an iPhone?

Wijatno: Speaking about young people, do you notice the younger generation doesn’t like phone calls? They prefer to text. If you call them, they reply and say, “Oh, can you just tell me on text?” That’s less human interaction. They don’t even get to hear our voice.

Han: That’s true.

Wijatno: So, I guess that’s the younger generation. For other generations, I totally agree. Nothing can replace a human touch. AI is not going to care about you if you’re in the hospital, and AI can’t service you when you’re unwell or need help. AI is not going to answer the phone in the middle of the night or contact your family member. AI is not going to give you comfort. There’s a lot of things it’s incapable of. But then again, what you said earlier — if I can do it, someone else can — really got me thinking: How do we manage to stay a step ahead? Sure, somebody can key into ChatGPT, “I am 35 years old, about to get married, these are my finances” and so on. How do we make sure that we create value on top of that?

Han: Also, we need to focus on creating value that is on top of things that can be available on ChatGPT. And that’s what keeps me up at night thinking about this.

Wijatno: Yeah, even client events are very good ways to create more touchpoints with your client. No one else is going to keep reminding the client, “Hey, do your lasting power of attorney, and make sure your will is in place.” AI is not going to do that. Maybe, at most, AI will send a future prompt on the phone, but if we meet them three times, four times a year, invite them to events, to seminars that are educational, that are helpful, they will be prepared. They will get these tasks done, which will accomplish much more than a prompt to your computer or phone. So, I still think we create a lot of value that AI can’t yet.