Insights

Man In The Machine

Written by Kyle Wiggs | August 18, 2023

No matter who you are or what industry you happen to be a part of, chances are you have an uneasy relationship with technology. As tech sectors advance and bring incredible innovations, we also feel the effects of a life that's becoming more automated. And while these innovations are undoubtedly helpful at large, they come with a cost.

How UX Wealth Partners Is Returning the Human to AI Portfolio Automation.

 

The Technology Dilemma

No matter who you are or what industry you happen to be a part of, chances are you have an uneasy relationship with technology. As tech sectors advance and bring incredible innovations, we also feel the effects of a life that's becoming more automated. And while these innovations are undoubtedly helpful at large, they come with a cost.

A human cost.

This tension is genuine for those of us in the cross-section of the financial and technology world. We've watched the industry become revolutionized by tech advancements while being decimated by the advent of automated services. It used to be that the biggest threat to an RIA was that a client might choose a different advisor. Now the most significant threat is becoming what if the client doesn't choose an advisor? What if instead of trusting a flesh and blood expert, ANY expert, they decide to trust themselves…themselves with a Robo-advisor in hand, that is. 

And so the duality, once again, is created: we need technology to make us better and more competitive, while technology simultaneously contributes to some pitfalls.

This dilemma is what UX Wealth Partners is trying to solve — how do we return, not replace, the human in technology?

We believe we’ve found the answer.

 

 

The Two "AI" Problems

Let’s highlight a simple example:

You, an RIA, need portfolio management. Unless you're drowning in time, you will automate your portfolio management because there aren't enough hours in the day for you to build and constantly manage individual client portfolios. You'll pick an automated portfolio manager, take its suggestions, pass them on to your client, and keep your head down.

But the problem here is two-fold: 

First

Most RIAs are getting their portfolio management from the same handful of sources. There's little to no differentiation — because that's often the business of automation. The automation isn't trying to think uniquely — it's trying to automate. Your clients aren't getting unique insights; they're getting the same insights as everyone else. The technology can't see how unique your clients are. That leads to the second issue…

Second

You have no discernable edge over your competition. A lot of RIA's we talk to feel less than formidable. And that's not a surprise. Many see themselves with less time, fewer clients, smaller staff, and less capacity than their competitors. The issue isn't that RIAs aren't capable; when you use the same portfolio automation as your competitors, your capacity gets nullified.

 
The technology can’t see how unique you are.

Here lie the two problems we must resolve: Technology needs to understand your client's unique requirements, and the technology needs to understand your unique expertise and capacity. In both places, it has cut the human out in favor of its automation.

The last issue is that the ones who mainly benefit from the current portfolio automation system are the lazy investment managers who hope no one catches on to their apathy.

The RIA who wants to do some good, is working hard, and needs the leg up? They lose in the end because even though they ARE different, they AREN'T using a different system. One that relies upon them to make it work, as opposed to the technology.
 
 

 

Putting the "I" Back In Intelligence

Now, to be sure, we're not arguing against technology automation. Technology allows our clients to grow by leaps and bounds and stand head and shoulders above the competition by providing insights that no one else has. For context, here are two startling facts:
 
90% of the world’s data was created in the last two years.
85% of large-cap funds underperformed the S&P 500 over the last 10 years.
 
When you take the scope of data, mixed with the probability, and add in the historical propensity for underperformance, you arrive at the need for a game-changing piece of technology. 

Technology can, by and large, change the possibilities.

But when that technology works devoid of the human beings on the other end of it, when it discounts the RIA and their client, and when it provides nothing that's differentiated from other technology, there's a limit to how valuable that AI will be. 

That's why we're returning the human to the AI at UX Wealth Partners. By advancing technology that relies on a unique AI learning algorithm and AI pattern matching, we don't just create better portfolios for your clients. We combine the ability to identify near-future market states and leverage the information to meet your client's needs. 

And by providing technology that's easy to use and yields better results, we're helping you use your skills and expertise to manage the AI's suggestions, differentiating you in the market by allowing you to take our best suggestions and create better portfolios with them.

 

 

Better results for your clients, by giving you better tools, all with better AI. We believe AI that stands out should help you stand out too.