Business Transformation | 01.07.26

Looking Ahead At 2026: Advisors Refine Tech/Touch Balancing Act

by: Rich Blake

With great technology comes great responsibility. Clients expect higher levels of service. Bosses crave more efficiency. And securities markets remain as challenging as ever.

The stock market has become toppy and concentrated. Digital assets beckon but volatility is a huge concern. And while the regulatory setting has become less burdensome for advisory firms, thorny issues such as cybersecurity and data privacy have only gotten thornier.

As advisors look ahead to 2026, the pace of technological innovation appears to be gaining unstoppable momentum.

However, customers across age brackets still have mixed feelings about digital platforms designed to replace the personal touch. A resurgence of interest among the most affluent investors in personalized advisors is good news for the industry. However, the uptick in demand comes amidst a talent shortage. The attrition math is sobering.

According to a recent McKinsey report, the industry is expected to experience a shortfall of 100,000 advisors over the next decade. This need for experts arrives just as there's an uptick of newly well-off American households.

UBS reports that the U.S. minted some 380,000 new millionaires in 2024. That brings the total number of millionaires in America to roughly 24 million, or equal to nearly 40% of the world’s total millionaires today, versus 38% in 2023. In all, UBS estimates that the U.S. has four times as many USD millionaires as China, the second-ranked nation in terms of affluence.

Ever-more-potent artificial intelligence (AI) tools might fill some of that widening advisor gap. Many Wall Street and Silicon Valley titans apparently are betting on it.

Here are a few key looming themes on which bank industry advisors should keep an eye.

Fighting the 'Finfluencers'

Two decades since the launch of Facebook, the rise of social media as a marketing tool for advisors is old news. What is new, however, is how affluent investors are using social media. According to a study by RFI Global, the portion of U.S. households that relied on Facebook, LinkedIn, X and other such platforms for financial information rose from 28% in 2023 to 44% currently.

As might be expected, this trend is particularly pronounced among younger investors. A Gallup poll conducted this past spring concluded that 42% of savers between the ages of 19 and 29 mainly relied on social media for investment information, leading to the rise of finance influencers, or “finfluencers.”

Often dubious, these are social media personalities who freely dole out financial advice.

In December 2024, the SEC Investor Advisory Committee issued a report concluding that regulators need to take a more active approach to regulating financial advice on social media. For professional advisors, there’s clearly a needle to thread in 2026: how to win investors’ attention responsibly.

Apps, Apps and More Apps

According to the RFI Global annual financial service report for 2026, mobile apps will become the number one channel for making investments by early next year.

Already, 77% of U.S. households engage with their financial institutions via mobile apps each month. As demand for mobile investment services has exploded, clients have come to expect features such as real-time analytics, streamlined on-boarding and the ability to tackle complex inquiries via chat threads.

The massive demand for app-based investing has created a fintech bonanza. SoFi shares have doubled so far this year. RobinHood more than tripled. Legacy bank channel advisors need to somehow keep up.

Generational Shift

In recent years affluent households have begun to return to traditional financial advisors. RFI estimates that 56% of households now seek financial advice, up from 40% in 2022. That’s the highest percentage since affluent investors soured on working with professionals following the 2008 financial crisis.

While AI could one day spell the death knell for all sorts of professions done by humans, the RFI study found that 84% of households remain unsure about using AI tools when it comes to financial planning. Changes to the tax code (gifting thresholds made permanent) have put a renewed emphasis on wealth transfer optimization strategies.

With increasing need for estate planning among boomers, coupled with uncertainty over policy, markets and the economy, there is every reason to believe that the trend will continue in 2026.

AI Has Its Role

No bigger story has shaped the world economy more than the monstrous AI investment cycle, creating data center mania and growing fear of a dotcom-era style bubble. Promoters of the new technology have presented generative models as the key to dramatically increased productivity. Financial services sits squarely among the industries on which AI companies have set their sights.

New tools are expected to streamline operational and administrative tasks. In addition to handling back-office functions, many new fintechs are betting that advisory firms will deploy AI tools for managing client needs. So far, the reaction of customers seems mixed. The RFI Global Financial services survey found that while 23% of U.S.-based investors are willing to use AI chatbots for managing mundane inquiries, they remain wary of the technology, as only 8% of respondents were willing to try planning services handled entirely by AI.

Wall Street is betting big that planners and advisors will increasingly adopt AI tools to manage and grow their business. In 2025, VC heavyweights including Sequoia and Iconiq participated in a seeding round for Nevis, a UK startup focused on AI tools for the wealth management industry. With such a massive push from investors and considering a proliferation of technology offerings, advisors can expect to be inundated with new AI products in the year ahead.