Financial Advice in the Age of AI.

Published 2025-01-03 · Updated 2026-05-23 · 7 min read · AI in Finance · By Sahin Boydas

With robo-advisors and AI-powered financial coaches, what is the human financial advisor? I’m exploring how the role of the financial advisor is evolving in the age of AI and how the best advisors are using technology to their advantage.

The best advice I ever got about financial advice in the age of ai. came from a founder who'd failed at it three times.

With robo-advisors and AI-powered financial coaches, what is the human financial advisor? I’m exploring how the role of the financial advisor is evolving in the age of AI and how the best advisors are using technology to their advantage.

The Framework That Actually Works

I'm going to share the exact framework I use when evaluating financial advice in the age of ai.. It's not complicated, but it requires discipline.

Step 1: you should focus on one thing and do it exceptionally well This is where most people go wrong. They skip this step entirely and jump straight to execution. Don't do that.

Step 2: the market doesn't care about your roadmap Once you have the foundation right, this becomes much easier. I've watched founders struggle with this for months when the answer was staring them in the face.

Step 3: Iterate relentlessly Nothing works perfectly the first time. The companies in my portfolio that nail financial advice in the age of ai. are the ones that treat it as an ongoing process, not a one-time project.

Why Most Approaches Fail

Let me be direct: about 70% of the approaches I see to financial advice in the age of ai. are fundamentally flawed. Not slightly off. Fundamentally flawed.

The root cause is usually one of three things:

  • Copying what big companies do without understanding why they do it. What works for Google doesn't work for a 10-person startup.
  • Over-engineering the solution when a simple approach would work better. I've seen teams spend six months building something that could have been done in two weeks.
  • Ignoring the human element. Technology is the easy part. Getting people to actually use it is where the real challenge lives.

Lessons From the Trenches

I want to share a few specific lessons I've picked up over the years. These aren't theoretical. They come from real companies, real failures, and real successes.

Lesson 1: The best time to start thinking about financial advice in the age of ai. was yesterday. The second best time is now. Don't wait until you have the perfect plan.

Lesson 2: Hire for attitude, train for skill. The best financial advice in the age of ai. practitioners I've met weren't the most technically gifted. They were the most curious and persistent.

Lesson 3: Your competitors are probably getting this wrong too. That's your opportunity. While everyone else is following the same playbook, you can zig when they zag.

This connects to broader themes around robo-advisors, AI banking, fintech AI that I've been thinking about a lot lately.

What's Next

The world of financial advice in the age of ai. is moving fast. What worked last year might not work next year. That's both the challenge and the opportunity.

My advice: stay curious, stay humble, and stay close to the people who are actually doing the work. Read less thought leadership and do more experiments. Talk to fewer consultants and more practitioners.

And if you're a founder building in this space, remember that the best time to get financial advice in the age of ai. right is before you need to. Don't wait for a crisis to force your hand.

I'll keep sharing what I learn. This stuff matters too much to keep to myself.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the most common pushback you get on this?

People often push back by citing exceptions or edge cases. And they're usually right that exceptions exist. But building a strategy around exceptions rather than patterns is a losing game for most founders.

What experience informs this perspective?

This perspective comes from over a decade of building companies in Silicon Valley, two successful exits (RemoteTeam to Gusto, MovieLaLa to Gfycat), and investing in 200+ startups including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Scale AI. I write about what I've lived.

Do all experts agree with this view?

No, and that's fine. The best ideas in business are often contrarian. I share my perspective based on my experience and data, but I encourage you to seek out opposing viewpoints and form your own conclusions.

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