Half (48%) of financial advisers are now using or implementing AI tools in some way, according to a new report from Fidelity Adviser Solutions.
The use of AI is moving from experimentation into everyday workflows, according to the report from the adviser platform.
Adoption is rising across administrative tasks and into core elements of the advice process, according to the research.
Meeting transcription and note generation AI tools were the most frequently used tools, with 48% of advisers using or implementing them compared with 25% in 2025.
Adoption for report personalisation had risen from 15% to 42% year-on-year. The other area which had seen a major increase was suitability assessments and reporting, which has increased from 11% to 40% year-on-year.
There was a division in the adoption of AI between larger and smaller firms.
Advisers at firms with six or more advisers were more than twice as likely to be using or implementing AI for meeting transcription and note generation as those at firms with five or fewer advisers (72% vs 31%). A similar gap can be seen in report personalisation (63% vs 27%) and suitability assessment and reporting (62% vs 24%).
The increase in the use of AI by advisers tallies with the FCA’s Wealth Management Survey Report 2026 which last month found that 58% of wealth advisers were either considering or already using AI tools. It found that the most common use for the tools was support with controlling efficiencies, fraud detection and client communications.
Paul Richards, head of adviser distribution at Fidelity Adviser Solutions, said: “AI has already moved into the day-to-day advice process. In the space of a year, we have seen a significant increase in the number of advisers whose firms are using or implementing AI not only for meeting notes, but for report personalisation, suitability, and a much wider range of workflows.
“The opportunity is not to replace the adviser, but to create more capacity for the parts of the job where human judgement, conversation and relationships matter most. Advisers increasingly see AI as a way to spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time with clients.”
A third (31%) of advisers surveyed by the platform said they believed the effective use of AI tools would be among the most important skills over the next three years, close to technical expertise at 35%. Interpersonal and communication skills still rank highest at 51%, reinforcing the continued importance of human interaction.
Looking ahead, the majority of advisers (72%) expected AI to have a positive impact on their role (2025: 64%). The proportion expecting AI to have a negative impact had fallen from 12% to 9%.
Advisers did not expect the growth in the use of AI to diminish the importance of the human adviser-to-client relationship.
Seven in ten (71%) of the advisers surveyed felt that AI would help them spend more time on client-facing work and less time on repetitive tasks over the next three years. Two thirds (69%) said AI would increase the importance of human judgement and emotional intelligence, while 66% expected the importance of face-to-face interaction with clients to increase.
The main barriers to the further adoption of AI were trust and compliance.
A third (31%) of the advisers surveyed by the platform cited a lack of trust in AI-generated outputs. This rose to 36% among firms with five or fewer client-facing advisers, compared with 22% at firms with six or more.
Compliance or regulatory concerns followed at 27%, with data security and privacy concerns and fears about losing the human element both cited by 24%.
• NextWealth surveyed 200 financial advisers on behalf of Fidelity Adviser Solutions in June.