How Citi Wealth uses AI for insights to support, not replace advisors

Research shows that 70% of wealth managers believe AI enhances.

The wealth management industry's use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is under pressure as clients demand hyper-personalised service, regulations are tightening, and firms are drowning in data, said Gunjan Bhatt, Global Head of Data Science, Citi Wealth.

Bhatt told the audience at the Asian Banking & Finance and Insurance Asia Summit in Singapore today that the future is not about replacing advisors with machines, but enhancing them. 

“The traditional narrative is to scale. AI has been automating everything,” Bhatt said. “But we feel this is missing out the most important element in the wealth management business, which is building trust,”

According to data Bhatt shared, 85% of clients prefer interacting with human advisors supplemented by AI insights, and 70% of wealth managers believe AI enhances, rather than replaces, their decision-making. 

The business impact is tangible: 20% higher customer satisfaction, 25% greater advisor productivity, 30% improved client retention, and 15% growth in assets under management.

Bhatt outlined the industry headwinds: extreme client expectations for individualised experiences, fee compression, regulatory complexity, and data overload. 

“We need lots more refineries before [data] can actually be used in the product,” he noted, stressing that quality matters more than volume. 

Rather than chasing full automation, Citi is pushing for a model where technology supports, not supplants, human advisors. 

AI handles data processing, pattern recognition, straight-through processing, generating solution options, and anomaly detection, whilst humans focus on wisdom from experience, relationship building, strategic planning, and complex problem solving. 

The result, Bhatt argued, is “superior value for clients and increased trust.”

Citi Wealth has already rolled out tools such as Advisor Insights, which uses algorithms to suggest timely engagement opportunities, and AskWealth, which automates research for advisors. 

Partnerships are also key. Citi is working with Google Cloud to modernise infrastructure, Palantir to speed onboarding and improve access to information, and BlackRock on a customised portfolio offering managing about $80b in client assets.

As Bhatt concluded: “The human-machine collaboration is the key to go. We’ve seen early successes, and we’re super excited to build the future of wealth this way,”