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Most advisors are using AI backwards.
Not because the technology is bad. Quite the opposite. AI is becoming incredibly useful inside advisory practices. It can organize notes, summarize meetings, clean up emails, draft articles, and save enormous amounts of time.
But there is a growing risk that many advisors are removing the very thing clients hired them for in the first place.
The human element.
One of the most common uses of AI today is meeting note-taking software. Advisors finish a client meeting and within minutes a perfectly organized summary appears with action items, follow-up tasks, and a polished recap email ready to send.
Efficient? Absolutely.
But that doesn’t mean it should be sent as is. It needs the human touch before it goes to clients. Every communication needs your personality, your authenticity. After all, your clients hired you.
And in an industry where trust, reassurance, and emotional connection matter, that distinction matters more than most advisors realize.
This is also one reason communication has become such a major focus inside The Behavioral Finance Network. Advisors do not just need market commentary today. They need client content, communication tools, and behavioral frameworks that help clients feel understood during uncertain moments.
Clients value how you make them feel; their connection with you. AI can and should be employed, not as a final output, but as a way to enhance your voice.
In the rest of this article, I share how I personally use AI in my own writing process, where I think advisors are making mistakes with it today, and why I believe the advisors who stand out in the future may actually be the ones who feel the most human.
AI Should Enhance Your Voice, Not Replace It
I do not believe AI is going to replace financial advisors.
But I do believe some clients may eventually wonder whether they still need a human advisor if every interaction starts to feel automated.
That is why the real competitive advantage going forward may not simply be using AI. It will be preserving the human touch while using AI.
For example, I think advisors should absolutely use AI meeting note tools. They are valuable. They save time. They improve organization.
But before sending those notes to a client, add yourself back into the communication.
Maybe it is a short opening line.
Maybe it is a sentence referencing something personal the client mentioned during the meeting.
Maybe it is simply changing a few phrases so the language actually sounds like you.
Those small adjustments matter because they remind clients there is still a real human thinking about them.
The goal is not to hide the use of AI. Clients understand technology is part of modern business. The goal is to make sure technology does not erase your personality.
How I Personally Use AI
I use AI constantly when writing articles, emails, and now my upcoming book, Ignore the Noise.
But I do not ask AI to write for me.
I write first.
Then I use AI almost like a copy editor or thinking partner. I might ask it to tighten an idea, improve flow, or help me explain something more clearly.
Sometimes I completely disagree with what it gives me back. And when that happens, I do not just discard it. I explain why I disagree.
That back-and-forth process is where AI becomes genuinely valuable.
It is not simply generating content. It is helping refine my thinking and communication.
But even after all of that, the final step still matters most.
The final output has to sound like me.
That is where many people get into trouble today. They let AI generate something, glance at it for five seconds, and immediately send it out into the world.
The result is polished, but generic.
Technically correct, but emotionally flat.
And ironically, as AI-generated content becomes more common, authentic human communication may become even more valuable.
The Advisors Who Win Will Feel More Human
Behavioral finance has always been about understanding human emotion, decision-making, fear, uncertainty, and trust.
Those things are not disappearing because AI arrived. If anything, they may become even more important.
Clients do not simply want information. Information is everywhere now. They want interpretation. Reassurance. Perspective. Empathy. Confidence.
They want to feel understood.
AI can absolutely improve efficiency.
But the advisors who stand out in the future will be the ones who use AI while still sounding unmistakably human.