Plenty of advice firms have been ‘doing AI’ for years. They’ve tested tools, built the odd automation, maybe even stood up an agent or two. But testing tools isn’t the same as having a strategy.
That gap is exactly what brought one firm to Finura.
They’d been running AI projects for a couple of years already, but what they didn’t have was a strategic overlay: a clear view of where AI actually belonged in the advice journey, rather than another tool bolted on because it seemed useful.
So before building anything, Finura went back to basics and mapped the whole journey. Breaking it down made it easier to work out where AI could take work off the team’s plate across:
- Onboarding
- Discovery and fact-finding
- Advice generation and review
- Implementation
Starting small, on purpose
The first agent built was a file-noting tool deliberately chosen as a low-risk starting point. The firm already had an external file-note tool in use, so Finura rebuilt that function inside their existing Microsoft Copilot environment instead, adding a proper governance and security layer and cutting one more tool out of the tech stack. It went through a structured pilot: a test crew, feedback, iteration, refinement, until it worked for the business as a whole.
One agent led to the next
That’s when things started to really take off. Piloting the file-note agent surfaced an obvious next step: a discovery agent for new clients and prospects. And building that led the team to ask a question they’d never expected to ask. Could the same agent coach advisers in real time, not just take notes?
It could. The discovery agent started flagging moments like advisers talking over clients, and coaching them in line with the firm’s values.
From there, the rollout extended into:
- Implementation agents.
- An SOA audit agent that checks advice documents against the firm’s compliance philosophy and flags red flags before anything reaches a client (described by the business owner as the ‘pièce de résistance’)
How coaching came into the picture
One incredibly useful and concrete result came from that discovery agent. Discovery calls with prospects were meant to run 15 minutes, but were regularly taking up to half an hour. With the agent providing helpful feedback on their approach, calls settled at a consistent 15 to 17 minutes. Advisers could improve their current process, and newer advisers coming through their PY got a built-in way to learn the firm’s way of engaging clients instead of just a compliance checklist.
The impact this strategic approach delivered several key results:
- Advisers ended up getting more time back.
- There was one less external tool to manage.
- Client conversations became better and more consistent.
- The firm saw stronger audit outcomes before advice was even sent out.
- The team was able to acknowledge the importance of change management, with training and adoption work remaining ongoing even when the tech rolls out quickly.
The first agent was scoped small, piloted with a real test crew, and refined until it worked end to end for the whole team. That process is what allowed each subsequent issue to surface on its own, one agent naturally leading into the next.
Watch the video to get the whole story from Danni Le Grande, Head of IFA Consulting at Finura.