OpenAI-powered assistants are set to take on the grunt work of Morgan Stanley wealth advisors.

• Morgan Stanley is expanding its use of artificial intelligence by introducing a new assistant that will replace thousands of hours of work for its financial advisors.
• CNBC reported that bank executives revealed that Debrief, an assistant, maintains comprehensive records of advisors' meetings and generates draft emails and summaries of the discussions.
• Morgan Stanley's head of firmwide artificial intelligence, Jeff McMillan, stated that the program, constructed using OpenAI's GPT4, serves as an assistant during client Zoom meetings, eliminating the need for manual note-taking by advisors or junior employees.

Morgan Stanley is expanding its use of artificial intelligence by introducing a new assistant that will replace thousands of hours of work for its financial advisors.

One of the most significant steps yet for the use of generative AI at a major Wall Street bank is the plan by Morgan Stanley to release a program to its roughly 15,000 advisors by early July. The program, called Debrief, keeps detailed logs of advisors' meetings and automatically creates draft emails and summaries of the discussions.

The company's earlier attempts focused on developing a ChatGPT-like service to assist advisors in accessing the firm's extensive research. However, Debrief now utilizes AI to interact directly with advisors' most valuable asset: their relationships with affluent clients.

Morgan Stanley's head of firmwide artificial intelligence, Jeff McMillan, stated that the program, constructed using OpenAI's GPT-4, essentially attends client Zoom meetings and replaces the handwritten note-taking that advisors or junior employees have been doing.

"McMillan informed CNBC that the quality and depth of the notes are significantly improved, stating, "This does a better job of taking notes than the average human.""

Consent required

McMillan stated that future versions of Debrief will enable advisors to utilize the program on corporate devices during in-person meetings, but clients must always give their consent to being recorded.

The rollout will demonstrate the real-world effectiveness of generative AI, which has caused a stir on Wall Street and boosted the value of chipmakers, tech giants, and the broader U.S. stock market.

Morgan Stanley's wealth management division holds approximately 1 million Zoom calls annually, according to the bank. One Morgan Stanley advisor involved in the Debrief pilot stated that the program saves 30 minutes of work per meeting. After meetings, advisors typically spend time creating notes and action plans to address client needs.

"Don Whitehead, a Houston-based financial adviser, stated that he conducts four to six meetings a day while testing the software. He emphasized that the AI-powered note-taking service allows him to be more present during the meetings."

Morgan Stanley's projects in generative AI are a "grand experiment in productivity," said McMillan.

If advisors spend more time serving clients and prospecting for new ones, technology should increase Morgan Stanley's growth in assets under management, as well as retention of clients and advisors.

Morgan Stanley aims to increase its wealth management division's client assets from $5.5 trillion to $10 trillion as of March.

McMillan stated that it would take at least a year to ascertain whether the technology is enhancing advisor productivity.

"McMillan stated that although he is the analytics expert, the advisors excel when they are interacting with clients. They do not enjoy taking notes or analyzing research reports, which is not the reason they chose this profession."

The broader vision

In February, Morgan Stanley wealth management head Jed Finn informed investors that the company's vision for AI is to develop a technology layer that effortlessly assists advisors in performing all their tasks, such as sending proposals, managing portfolios, and generating reports, with minimal input.

The tasks of parsing contracts and opening accounts are common across all divisions of Morgan Stanley, including trading and banking, according to McMillan.

AI adoption could increase the finance industry's profit by $170 billion by 2028, according to a recent report, which also stated that finance jobs are at high risk of displacement by AI.

McMillan acknowledged that as the process is still in its infancy, business models may change in ways that are difficult to predict.

"He predicted that some areas would experience disruption," she stated. "We tend to focus on what we think we'll lose in the past, without considering what the future holds."

The need for millions of prompt engineers to train AI to create the desired outcomes for companies is what lies ahead, McMillan stated. Morgan Stanley took months to fine-tune prompts for Debrief, he pointed out.

McMillan advised his teenage kids to explore a career in prompt engineering.

"He stated that they would learn to communicate with machines, give instructions, interact with people, and cooperate, which is a completely different approach to work."