At a glance
- Alison Dooher, head of AI at Schwab Advisor Services, advised starting small by building each agent around a single activity.
- Schwab's survey found only 7% of advisors use agentic AI, as Private Wealth Daily previously reported.
- An advisor building a first agent would give it one task, a written role and a review date before granting more responsibility.
RIAs should treat AI agents like new hires, with written job descriptions, probation periods and regular status reviews, a panel of wealthtech executives said Tuesday at RIA Edge Austin, WealthManagement.com reported.
Alison Dooher, head of AI at Schwab Advisor Services, advised starting small by building each agent around a single activity. A narrow role, she said, lets a firm define the agent clearly enough to set governance, guardrails and monitoring. Trevor Hicks, founder of Stack Strategy, compared agents to interns who do not get "the keys to the castle." Karl Simon, CTO of Subatomic AI, said agents can take on more responsibility as they prove themselves, with a human always in the loop. Firms must define specific checks and boundaries, not just write a long prompt, Simon added.
Schwab's survey found only 7% of advisors use agentic AI, as Private Wealth Daily previously reported.
An advisor building a first agent would give it one task, a written role and a review date before granting more responsibility.
Reported by the RIA desk from WealthManagement.com. Published . Corrections