Artificial intelligence has fallen from hero to hazard in record time, says Laura Cornely, Director at Count Finance. After news of the launch of an AI tax planning tool, shares in SJP fell 12 % yesterday, with Quilter and AJ Bell shares also suffering the impact. In the following analysis, Laura looks under the bonnet at what’s been going on in the markets in recent days, and why it’s so relevant for the future of wealth management.
Until recently, AI was the market’s wonderchild, powering valuations and promising efficiency gains across financial services. But the sharp sell-off in wealth manager stocks triggered by Altruist’s launch of its tax AI “Hazel”, tells a new story. AI as catalyst yesterday, AI as competitor today.
That shift feels particularly painful in an industry built on human touch, trust and long-term relationships.
In the UK, however, the debate carries a different nuance. AI has frequently been positioned as a potential answer to the UK advice gap, especially amid a strong political push for a more accessible, less burdensome regulatory environment. Technology, in theory, offers scale where traditional advice models struggle.
But Consumer Duty sharpens the focus: If AI replaces the adviser, who ultimately holds responsibility for the outcome? How do known issues such as opaque black-box decision-making align with the FCA’s requirement for transparency and demonstrable good client outcomes? How come a human adviser has to jump through extensive regulatory hurdles whereas AI seems to run unchecked?
Whilst recent improvements in AI have been impressive (or scary as the markets show), it is questionable whether AI is the solution for advice. Although it is true that AI can deliver decent output at scale at low cost, it’s propensity to appease, tendency to hallucinate and the overly confident presentation of its outputs makes it dangerous for retail clients and professionals alike. Therefore, the question is, is a technology that is prone to mistakes and merely replaces human error with machine error suitable for advice?
For years, the FCA claimed: Efficiency is attractive but accountability is non-negotiable. Did that change?
We build the UK solution to these questions: At Count, we have deliberately focused on automation rather than generative AI. Deterministic systems where the same input delivers the same output, every time. Compliance is not layered on top; it is built in. The objective is not to replace professional judgement, but to support it with infrastructure that is predictable and most of all auditable.
Our mission remains simple: close the UK advice gap responsibly. That means delivering an affordable B2C solution for lower-income clients who are currently priced out of advice, alongside an FCA-regulated B2B platform that enables financial advisers to serve more clients without compromising standards.
The market reaction to Altruist’s Hazel raised some eyebrows amongst my colleagues considering that our algorithms already cover more tax aspects in the UK but are fully auditable and predicable. So, is the AI hype and the market meltdown overblown? Maybe. But it shows that the market is changing and incumbents have to go with the time and adapt new technologies.
Our stance is clear: financial advice should become available to everyone but we shouldn’t use a generation of retail clients as guinea pigs for an unproven technology.
