True Potential is striking a balance between giving clients a personal service and letting machines do the job - but now it wants to move to the next stage of tech-enabled service: hyper-personalisation.
Daniel Harrison, chief executive of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne headquartered business, says the firm has, for the past year, been exploring ways to use artificial intelligence to make its service more personal, yet more efficient.
In particular it is scoping out ways to deliver a service tailored to the individual client and their preferences; as Harrison says: "when to be proactive, when to be reactive, and what medium to do it [in]".
The result could see the firm's clients end up with completely different propositions from each other, depending on how they engage with True Potential and its advisers, client service team and technology.
True Potential, which claims it works with 20 per cent of all UK financial advisers in some form across its various business arms, already uses technology to underpin its service.
In particular it collects vast amounts of data on client engagement to analyse what support the client might need and when.
The company claims it launched in 2007 to bring its hybrid advice model to the masses. This model is based on remote service only, with clients assigned an adviser whom they meet via video chat, as well as client service managers and an interactive portal and mobile app.
Even the annual reviews are done remotely via the technology, with the client required to record any changes to their circumstances or goals in a digital interactive suitability report.
Harrison believes this model, which he points out has been awarded accolades over the years for its ingenuity, is the future of mainstream advice.
If anything, market forces will dictate it, he says.
"I think the industry will evolve into having firms like us, looking after hundreds of thousands of clients - millions of clients hopefully.
"There will be a smaller subset of planners who I think will start to look after higher-net-worth clients, where they can look after a lot less of those clients and spend a lot more time with them," he says.
Ongoing advice not needed
Harrison took over as CEO of True Potential from his father Sir David in 2018.
He explains the key to good service is getting the balance right between giving a personalised advice service and getting customers to engage with technology when human advice is not needed.
And this is often the case, he adds.
"I think we have a real lack of understanding or lack of definition about what advice means. I think advice is an event that doesn't happen every day, doesn't happen even every year. It happens as and when the client needs."
