Feature first seen in Professional Adviser on 12/06/2018

A story in the press recently about a robot that is able to put together an IKEA chair touched upon something fundamental about robotics: that it is much tougher to programme physical dexterity than cognitive ability. It’s called Moravec’s paradox, and it explains why robots can beat the world’s best chess and Go players but cannot walk across a cluttered room. So when we talk about how AI and robotics are going to transform the financial services industry, we need to be careful.

By putting all our faith in robots, we are overvaluing the analytical side of financial advice and undervaluing its human elements. The FCA is guilty of this too, partly because it is harder to measure the value of human relationships than performance and portfolio management. What’s clear is that, at least for the foreseeable future, AI will augment financial advisers rather than replace them.