AI financial services reckoning: Only global powerhouses to thrive

The AI advances now forcing a violent repricing across wealth management are set to accelerate consolidation across financial services, concentrating market share in “heavyweight global advisory firms equipped to handle complexity that algorithms alone cannot.”

That is the bold prediction from Nigel Green, chief executive of deVere Group, as stocks across the sector retreat following the launch of a new artificial intelligence-powered tax planning tool that claims to generate fully personalized strategies within minutes.

He says: “This is a reckoning for financial services.

“Investors are legitimately questioning what part of advice is process and what part is genuinely strategic.”

Markets have reacted sharply to the idea that AI can analyze tax returns and income data almost instantly, raising concerns that traditional advisory fee models face structural compression.

Automation threatens to make elements of domestic tax optimization faster, cheaper and more accessible.

Nigel Green agrees that part of the industry will now change permanently.

“AI will compress the commoditized end of advice. Routine, single-country planning will become more efficient and more price competitive. This transition is underway in real-time,” he says.

However, he argues that the selloff reflects an assumption that wealth management is primarily about calculating tax outcomes within one jurisdiction.

In reality, global wealth has become more complex precisely at a time when geopolitics is fragmenting the international system.

“An algorithm operating inside one tax code works in a contained framework,” Nigel Green explains.

“But clients increasingly hold assets, pensions and business interests across multiple jurisdictions. Residency rules shift, bilateral tax treaties evolve, capital gains treatment varies, and regulatory divergence between regions is widening.”

He also adds that AI’s limitations become more visible as geopolitical risk intensifies.

“Geopolitics now directly influences portfolio construction. Trade disputes, sanctions, regional conflicts and regulatory realignment between blocs affect capital flows, currency exposure and asset allocation decisions,” he says.

“When wealth depends upon several highly complex, highly societal, highly human and consistently evolving geopolitical scenarios all at the same time, advisory decisions can’t be reduced to an AI data set.”

He continues: “Governments adjust tax policy in response to debt pressures and domestic priorities. AI can process data quickly, but it can’t independently anticipate how shifting geopolitical realities alter long-term structuring decisions.”

He believes the current repricing is part of a broader segmentation of the sector.

“Firms built around domestic, process-driven advice models are more exposed to automation-led fee compression,” notes the deVere CEO.

“Firms operating across numerous jurisdictions, coordinating wealth through complex regulatory, tax and geopolitical environments, sit in a different category.”

Historically, operating internationally increased operational burden and compliance cost.

“In an era where automation reduces the value of routine tasks, that same international complexity becomes strategic insulation.”

“AI simplifies the uniform. Global wealth management is never uniform.”

He expects consolidation to accelerate as investors and clients differentiate between commoditised advisory functions and globally integrated advisory platforms.

“Tech will reshape delivery, but it won’t eliminate the need for experienced oversight. Indeed, far from it. It becomes more valuable than ever.”

Nigel Green concludes: “The sharp market reaction due to AI advances marks the beginning of differentiation rather than decline, and the start of a new, competitive hierarchy within wealth management.”