Nearly nine out of 10 financial advisers (86%) expect client numbers to grow over the next 12 months, according to a major adviser survey published today.

The survey, by fintech Dynamic Planner, found the adviser sector to be confident about client growth, with many firms planning to add AI tools to their businesses to help reach more clients and boost efficiency.

The survey of advice professionals found:

• 86% of advisers expect to increase their client base over the next 12 months
• 72% of advice firms say they are serving more clients than they were a year ago - a trend they expect to continue
• Smaller firms are most likely (and the largest firms least likely), to have increased their client bases over the past year
• Senior business decision makers were slightly less likely to expect further increases in client numbers.

On AI (Artificial Intelligence), 94% expect AI to be “positive” for the advice industry with 85% of advice professionals describing data gathering as “essential or useful” for their firm.

The finding are in Advice 2025, a new independent survey undertaken with over 400 advice professionals across the UK consisting of 304 financial advisers, 52 decision makers and 50 Paraplanners. The survey was conducted by Research Without Barriers in the first quarter of 2025 for Dynamic Planner.

The survey found that 9 out of 10 advice professionals (94%) expected AI to be positive for the industry, with early use cases including meeting transcription and summarisation, document analysis and data extraction. Report generation and personalisation were also mentioned as benefits.

Dynamic Planner says that positive sentiment around AI is driven by expectations that the technology will reduce the cost to serve and enable firms to service more clients.

Those in their mid-careers are a little less convinced of the benefits of AI but younger respondents who are building their client bases find the ability to serve more clients particularly appealing, according to the survey.

Although firms are keen to embrace AI, under a third are using it, with just over a half actively investigating and most of the remainder expecting it to become useful soon.

Ben Goss, CEO of Dynamic Planner, said: “Our inaugural report has found a highly positive mood in an industry that is growing and thriving. In the advice sector, as in the world at large, change is a constant – but firms are rising to the challenges and facing the future with confidence.

“Standout themes from Advice 2025 include the rise of data and the transformative potential of artificial intelligence – clearly viewed by advice professionals as opportunities to be seized. The advent of both no doubt plays a part in supercharging the view that firms will increase their client base over the coming year.”