How not to become the Kākāpō of Financial Advice

The warning from nature is blunt: when a slow-moving species mistakes isolation for protection, disruption does not arrive politely, but savagely and often permanently.

New Zealand’s financial advice sector now faces a similar situation. Artificial intelligence is moving through financial services at speed, compressing cost, removing friction and challenging assumptions that once felt impenetrable.

For decades, advice has remained one of the most human, relationship-led and margin-rich parts of the financial services value chain. But that position is no longer guaranteed.

Around the world, wealth managers are already using AI to automate administration, scale personalisation, support portfolio design and free advisers from low-value operational work. But this is just the start.