JPMorgan Pilots Generative AI Tool for Private Bank
JPMorgan is testing a generative AI “copilot” within its private bank, a move that is already saving advisors a couple of hours a day.
The AI tool aims to make advisors faster, smarter, and eventually, be rid of all the tedious operational work, Karen Donnelly, who leads the digital tech team for JPMorgan’s US private bank, told Business Insider.
It will save advisors time with manual tasks, like prepping for client meetings, tracking down nuggets of information during client calls in real-time, or putting together follow-up emails with the next steps for clients. More than that, it can suggest investment opportunities for advisors to flag to clients, like buying more of one stock in a client portfolio that’s performing well. If a client mentioned in an email they’re interested in healthcare, the AI could suggest inviting the client to an upcoming industry conference. Some advisors have told Donnelly it’s saving them a couple of hours a day, she told BI.
Advisors have been piloting the tool since March, and it’ll roll out to all advisors this summer, she said.
Other wealth managers have been experimenting with AI, including Morgan Stanley, which has partnered with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. It launched a chatbot for advisors in September and is working on two other tools, including one that also summarizes client calls and generates follow-up emails.
And it’s not just JPM’s private bankers benefitting from AI. Analysts in asset and wealth management can thank AI for saving them two to four hours of work a day, Mary Erdoes, who runs the division, said during the bank’s investor day Monday. In compliance, JPM is on track to process nearly 50% more Know Your Client files with 20% fewer people, according to COO Dan Pinto’s presentation.
Long-term, Donnelly said she wants to use generative AI to replicate the success of JPMorgan’s best, brightest, and most tenured bankers for all advisors. She’s working to train the AI copilot on data like how the bank’s top advisors respond to emails, how they handle client interactions, and what their portfolios look like. Doing so will allow the AI to suggest how new advisors should act, what smart ideas to bring up, or things they should be thinking about.
Getting to that ultimate state will be iterative, Donnelly said. The “holy grail” of looking at all the data across the private bank and immediately prompting certain ideas will be delivered over time, she said, adding that it will be “really meaningfully life changing for an advisor.”
How Donnelly’s team drives innovation in the private bank
JPMorgan’s private bank caters to clients with at least $10 million in assets. Many of these ultra-rich customers have sprawling portfolios and borrow against unique assets like artwork and yachts. The unit’s $974 billion in assets are managed by just over 3,500 client advisors. Financial advisors aren’t known for being tech savvy, with an average age of 55, per JD Power.
When the CEO of JPM’s private bank tapped an advisor with little to no technical experience to lead digital product for his division, it was intentional.
“He said, ‘I want everything that we’re doing in technology to 100% be exactly what advisors want, exactly what clients want,'” Donnelly recalled her boss, David Frame, saying when he offered her the role in 2020. He didn’t “want the individuals that are deciding the advisor experience and client experience not to sit amongst the front-office users,” she said.
Now, Donnelly leads a team of 50 product owners — 40% of whom are ex-advisors — who work to improve different elements of the private bank, like the online client experience or advisor tools. The chatbot is a new feature on the Connect platform, which is an in-house system used by advisors every day for things like looking at client positions, analyzing performance, and logging call notes. Her team delivers multiple enhancements and new features a week, with Donnelly highlighting two to three changes every Friday morning during the weekly advisor meeting.
Much of their work these days is focused on AI. “I don’t care what the person is working on, they need to be thinking about how AI can make the experiences that they’re building better,” Donnelly said.
Coming from a business background, Donnelly doesn’t run her team like most technologists on Wall Street. She regularly gets her product owners to pitch their roadmaps or even pitch someone else’s product. This helps her team, which has grown by 10 people since 2022, think about the private banking experience holistically.
“I do think it’s very important for people to be able to — at the drop of a hat — articulate what they’re solving for in a way that’s going to resonate with their users,” she said.
Within a few years, Donnelly is gunning to eradicate any and all operational tasks for advisors.
When a client wants to send a wire, their advisor needs to call client services to queue it up. If a client wants to open a new account, advisors need to draft the DocuSign. Donnelly said she wants to eliminate this kind of work as much as possible so advisors can improve the client experience and bring on more business without needing to stay online until 1 a.m.
“Our big focus right now is anything AI-related, anything that we can do to increase innovation as it relates to their interactions with clients,” Donnelly said of advisors.
