Financial advice and AI: what safeguards for the client

The impact of artificial intelligence and new technological challenges are reshaping the world of financial advice, a sector in which innovation must necessarily go hand in hand with the protection and management of human relations. This, in short, is what emerged from the first round table at Consulentia 2026 organised by Anasf, the association of financial advisors chaired by Luigi Conte. The round table featured representatives of the partner networks.
The essential starting point in this transition is data security and the protection of savers, as stressed by Mario Ruta, deputy general manager and commercial director of Allianz Bank Financial Advisors. Ruta highlights the urgent need to defend clients from cyber attacks that have grown exponentially (almost +740% since the beginning of 2026), promoting active solutions such as free cyber coverage. In closing his speech, he also recalls that the human relationship can never be replaced and invites professionals to face the new challenges as a team, integrating the new generation to be faster and more responsive.

Along the same pragmatic line is Marco Bernardi, deputy general manager distribution at Banca Generali, who sees in AI an extraordinary opportunity to streamline bureaucracy, freeing up time for commercial relations and exploiting data to create predictive models on customer behaviour and choices.

This recovery of time is also central for Alberto Martini, wealth management director of Banca Mediolanum, who points out that the Italia market is characterised by an imminent and massive intergenerational transfer of wealth and that new technologies will greatly optimise efficiency. In his view, the time gained will have to be invested in a twofold transition: moving from the mere logic of the 'product' to that of the integrated 'project', and transforming the advisor from a figure of mere proximity to one of real 'relevance' to the client.

This evolution intersects with the radical change in investor behaviour, as explained by Stefano Manfrone, wealth advisory partner at Bnl Bnp Paribas. Today, clients demand 'wealth advice' that takes care not only of their financial assets, but also of their all-round business and family interests. Manfrone also notes how this transformation has given the financial advisor a high-level social position, now comparable to that of a doctor or lawyer. And it is precisely to the figure of the doctor that Paolo Isidoro, Credem Banca's financial wellbanker sales manager, refers to reassure professionals: just as a doctor is not afraid of being replaced by technology but uses it to operate better, in the same way the advisor must raise his skills to guide the client in a world increasingly full of complex variables.

Managing and governing this change without undergoing it is the watchword for many of the speakers. Fabio Cubelli, co-general manager of Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking, insists on the need to steer this process consistently over time, putting advisors in a position to educate clients and get them to overcome emotional barriers so as not to be overwhelmed by crises. A concept reinforced by Angelita Brambilla, Fineco's Pfa network development and support director, who urges a shift from an attitude of mere adaptation to one of proactive guidance: technology will act as an amplifier of human capabilities, but at times when emotionality comes into play, clients will always want to look a professional in the eye and entrust him or her with their savings. For this reason, Brambilla believes that advisors can look to the future with complete serenity, seeing AI as a stimulus.