AI can bring benefits to all Financial Planning firms but it should be treated with caution, like any other business tool, keynote speaker Heather Murray, founder and CEO of AI for Non-Techies, told the CISI Annual Conference today.
She told delegates at the CISI’s annual Financial Planning Conference today that AI tools could transform almost any financial advice business.
Her session was described as, "a practical, jargon-free walkthrough of the AI tools transforming how financial advisers work, from cutting admin time to supercharging client relationships."
In a popular session, she told delegates that AI tools were already being used by many planners, particularly at the simplest level as AI note-takers.
She also urged planners to look at new areas such as "vibe coding" where planners could build mini apps to use with clients and new tools such as Humantic could be used with LinkedIn to build profiles of useful contacts.
She said: "A lot people make AI sounds hard but it's not, you just have to use the right features."
She said Interactive Client Knowledge Banks could also be invaluable in data mining client databases for trends and information on areas such as risk, annual statements and the like.
Many new tools were also being developed.
But she warned that AI was not perfect and cautioned Planners about using free or £20 a month versions of AI tools, recommending enterprise solutions as a better solution in terms of security and usefulness.
She said AI answers were also often far from perfect and said AI can be "confidently wrong" quite a lot of the time. There was also an issue with "the waffle problem" where AI produces long, wordy answers. Some firms using cheap or free AI tools could also risk their information appearing elsewhere.
She urged delegates to treat AI has a business tool like any other and take advantage of its benefits but be cautious about "over reliance" on the answers.
More than 350 Financial Planners and other financial experts are attending the two day conference near Windsor, one of the biggest events in the Financial Planning calendar.
The CISI’s Financial Planning Conference 2026 is spotlighting AI integration this year as well as how to attract and train new talent.
The conference is at the De Vere Beaumont Estate near Windsor and the final day is today, 9 October. It is the biggest gathering of Certified Financial Planner professionals in the UK and the agenda has been developed in collaboration with the CISI Financial Planning Conference Committee.
Speakers have included Rory Sutherland, vice chair of Ogilvy UK, storytelling expert Matthew Dicks from the USA, FPSB CEO Dante De Gori CFP, Founder and CEO of AI for Non-Techies, Heather Murray and Jamil Qureshi, a leading voice in performance psychology and TEDx speaker.
Topics being covered include behavioural science, storytelling frameworks to build trust and deepen client relationships, top AI tools and prompts for Financial Planners, global insights and driving performance.