ChatGPT will break financial services

I recently spent the best part of a weekend playing with ChatGPT, the AI-powered natural language tool that answers questions and responds to prompts in an unerringly human way. My conclusion? It signals the end of the financial services industry as we know it.

That claim will be laughed off by the vast majority of financial services leaders. Unfortunately, many probably aren’t aware of what ChatGPT is — most financial executives I’ve spoken to in recent weeks haven’t heard of it. Those that have heard of it view it as little more than an upgraded chatbot.

In fact, the technology behind ChatGPT poses a direct threat to financial providers’ core strategy. Most financial firms think they’ll be able to keep earning high margins by selling trust and advisory services, especially to high-net-worth individuals. They’ve doubled down even as robo advisor firms have taken nearly $1 trillion in assets under management over the past decade. ChatGPT, or rather GPT3 and large language models like it, will turbocharge these upstarts’ ability to provide trusted advice and planning on the full range of financial services, from pensions to insurance to tax strategy.