I would like to contribute briefly to the dialog on AI mission creep in wealth management.
The warning Sanctuary’s CTO gave at BNY INSITE this week is one I think more CTOs should say out loud: when vendors stray from their core competency “because they can,” it creates anarchy. That framing is exactly right.
Here’s what I think is actually happening. The pressure to “AI everything” is real, and it’s coming from both directions. Firms feel it from their boards and clients. Vendors feel it from their investors. When those two pressures collide, you get a lot of AI solutions looking for problems.
The data point I keep coming back to is the one buried in the article: the Kitces map tripled in size in 18 months. That’s not a sign of a mature market. That’s a sign of a market still figuring out what it actually needs.
The firms I talk to that are furthest along share one thing: they picked a few deeply integrated partners and got ruthless about data coherence before asking AI to do anything with it.
I think the point here is that AI is not a layer you add on top of messy infrastructure. It’s a multiplier. Clean data and a focused vendor set gets amplified. Inconsistent data and tool sprawl gets amplified too.
Mid-size RIAs especially should read Chip Kispert’s line carefully: “They should be stewards of their tech.”
That’s the job right now.