Tag: chatgpt

The Trusted Agency-Restoration Layer: Helping People Use AI Without Being Used by AI

Financial services is entering a new phase. For decades, the industry has been organised around products, advice, distribution, regulation, platforms, documentation, and disclosure. The consumer has usually sat at the end of that chain: informed, nudged, sold to, advised, protected, categorised, risk-rated, and asked to consent. But something deeper is now changing. Artificial intelligence is … Continue reading The Trusted Agency-Restoration Layer: Helping People Use AI Without Being Used by AI →

SJP’s £220bn Question: What Happens When Clients and Advisers Stop Deferring?

The old wealth model depended on two quiet forms of deference. Clients deferred to advisers. Advisers deferred to institutions. That was the bargain beneath much of modern wealth management. The client was asked to trust the adviser. The adviser was asked to trust the firm. The firm provided the brand, proposition, investment architecture, supervision, process, … Continue reading SJP’s £220bn Question: What Happens When Clients and Advisers Stop Deferring? →

Consumer-Side AI: The Public Interest Use Case Financial Services Must Not Ignore

There is a missing half in the financial services AI conversation. At the moment, much of the debate is about how firms use artificial intelligence. How firms govern it. How firms test it. How firms manage risk. How firms explain AI-assisted decisions. How firms improve efficiency, productivity, compliance, and customer service. All of that matters. … Continue reading Consumer-Side AI: The Public Interest Use Case Financial Services Must Not Ignore →

Should clients use AI to check a financial adviser’s suitability report?

A financial adviser may object to The Leveller being used on a suitability report for several overlapping reasons. Some are legitimate. Some are defensive. The fair version is this: a suitability report is a regulated artefact. It is meant to evidence the adviser’s professional judgement, the client’s circumstances, the rationale for the recommendation, the risks, … Continue reading Should clients use AI to check a financial adviser’s suitability report? →

The Advice Diaspora: Why the Future of Planning May Belong to Those Who Leave the Old System Behind

For years, the financial advice industry has told itself a comforting story. That story says the public needs advice because money is complex, regulation is difficult, products are technical, and ordinary people cannot be expected to make good decisions without professional guidance. There is some truth in that. Money decisions can be complex. Pensions, tax, … Continue reading The Advice Diaspora: Why the Future of Planning May Belong to Those Who Leave the Old System Behind →

The Financial Advice Market Is Still Selling Dependency. Consumers Are Moving Towards Agency.

How should we understand the emerging shift from dependency to agency in the financial advice market, particularly as AI reduces information asymmetry and increases consumers’ ability to understand, model and challenge financial decisions for themselves? My working hypothesis is that the supply side of the market remains relatively rigid and anchored in the traditional dependency … Continue reading The Financial Advice Market Is Still Selling Dependency. Consumers Are Moving Towards Agency. →

The Pie Gets Bigger. The Pieces Don’t Redistribute on Their Own.

There are two easy stories about AI and jobs. The first says everything will be fine. Technology makes work cheaper, the economy grows, people move into better roles, and the disruption eventually settles into progress. The second says the opposite. AI will wipe out millions of jobs, hollow out professions, and leave people stranded before … Continue reading The Pie Gets Bigger. The Pieces Don’t Redistribute on Their Own. →

AoLP as an Agency-Restoration Ecosystem

How do we restore human agency in the age of AI and institutional power asymmetry? The defining question of the AI age may not be whether machines become more intelligent. It may be whether human beings become less capable of acting for themselves. For decades, individuals have lived with a growing power asymmetry between themselves … Continue reading AoLP as an Agency-Restoration Ecosystem →

AI Does Not Just Need a Pause. It Needs a Purpose: Restoring Human Agency Before Power Concentrates Beyond Reach

Anthropic, the company behind Claude, has reportedly called for the option of a global pause or slowdown in frontier AI development. Its argument is stark. If the development of more powerful AI systems could be slowed effectively, the world would have more time to understand and manage the consequences. The concern is not simply that … Continue reading AI Does Not Just Need a Pause. It Needs a Purpose: Restoring Human Agency Before Power Concentrates Beyond Reach →