Advisors Embrace AI as Growth Enabler, Not Threat: Q&A with LPL’s Kristie Edling-Day 

At a time when financial advisors are being asked to do more for clients with fewer resources, technology has become a critical lever for growth. According to new research from LPL Financial, more than three-quarters of advisors (78%) are already leveraging or plan to use AI tools this year to increase capacity in their businesses. While economic volatility and client growth remain top concerns, disruptive technology ranked far lower on advisors’ worry list—suggesting that AI is being embraced as an enabler, not a threat.  

To better understand what this means for practice management and the future of financial advice, Kristie Edling-Day, EVP and chief information officer at LPL Financial shared with Connect how AI and digital innovation are helping advisors expand services, meet client expectations, and prepare for the next phase of industry transformation.  

CM: LPL’s recent research shows that 78% of advisors are already leveraging or planning to leverage AI tools this year. Where are you seeing the biggest impact of AI in advisor practices today? 

KED: We’re really excited about what AI can do for advisors. In the near term, we’re seeing it as a major productivity tool. We’ve found that advisors want to be advisors, not chief information officers of their businesses. We’re focused on enabling them to most effectively serve their clients and eliminating the “swivel chair” experience by making our ClientWorks platform feel seamless as they move between tools. They also want choice, so we’re making sure we’re integrating the best of the best solutions into the platform.  

One of our most popular integrations is Jump, which takes a drastic amount of time and pain out of meeting management and note-taking. We’re hearing from advisors that Jump is saving them anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours — time that can then be spent working for and with clients.  

CM: There’s often anxiety in the industry that AI might replace human judgment. Yet your survey suggests advisors see it as a “friend, not foe.” How do you reassure advisors that AI is there to augment, not replace, their role? 

KED: I always say advisors should think of AI as a “power assist,” not a replacement. It’s there to help make their lives and their work easier so they can focus on spending more time with clients. 

I firmly believe the human element will only continue to become more important alongside more technology. As AI keeps improving, it’s harder and harder to identify genuine expertise from potentially fallacious, AI-generated “expertise” that sounds good. There is real value in having someone who is a true domain expert, or has been in your shoes, to guide you and help you navigate a complex situation.  

We get constant input from our more than 29,000 advisors, allowing us to focus on the biggest time sinks where we believe AI can help. We also have an Advisor AI Council — comprised of tech-savvy LPL financial advisors and institutions from across the country — to provide additional input and review use cases so we can ensure any new capabilities are truly adding value to their practices.  

CM: From your perspective as Chief Information Officer, what are some of the most exciting AI-powered capabilities—whether at LPL or across the industry—that are making a measurable difference in efficiency or client engagement? 

KED: I’m most excited about how AI and new technologies are elevating the human connection for our advisors. It’s giving them time back to be more human and more available for their clients. Our knowledge management tools are helping advisors find information in context, allowing them to maintain a thorough understanding across their book of clients and prioritize the highest value actions to take, not just the ones that happen to be top of mind.  

One area we’re enthusiastic about is new account onboarding — helping advisors onboard new clients and even helping advisors onboard into the firm itself. It’s an area ripe for AI assistance.  

Our survey also found that if they had more time in the day, 49% of advisors would spend that time with current clients and 44% prospecting for new clients. Leveraging AI tools to save time and headaches improves efficiencies and productivity, giving advisors that time back to maintain relationships and grow their businesses.  

CM: Beyond AI, technology more broadly has become central to practice management. How are you helping advisors build more scalable and efficient businesses while still maintaining a client-first approach? 

KED: Technology, including AI, is not about replacing people. It’s about freeing them to do the work only humans can do: build deep relationships and deliver personalized advice. In fact, I see technology as an optimizer. With integrated technology into advisors’ practices, we can help them eliminate tasks most advisors never liked anyway and, ultimately, make them more efficient. That shift gives advisors back valuable time to focus on what matters most – their clients. 

We’re bringing that to life in several ways. Our ClientWorks platform streamlines workflows and tooling so advisors don’t have to juggle multiple systems. We’re also automating routine processes, from document bundling to eliminate redundant paperwork to alternative investment order entries, to reduce administrative burden.  

In the end, the human connection is the true differentiator. By letting technology streamline tasks behind the scenes, we empower advisors to show up more fully for their clients, having richer conversations, building stronger relationships and delivering advice with empathy and care. 

CM: The survey also found advisors are planning to expand into new offerings—18% into alternatives and 37% into concierge-style services such as financial coaching or estate planning. How is technology enabling advisors to deliver on these ambitions? 

KED: One of our guiding principles at LPL is that AI and technology should surface real, immediate value for advisors — and that includes supporting advisors who are adding new offerings into their practices. We want to provide advisors with the tools and frameworks they need to grow their practices based on clients’ needs. 

Earlier this year, we launched LPL Alts Connect, a platform designed to streamline the way advisors and their clients access and manage alternative investments. The digitized system gives advisors options to build diversified, non-correlated portfolios for their clients. 

We know clients are looking for more comprehensive advice offerings and are tailoring our technology stack to meet those needs. These tools allow advisors to lean into growth, not grind.  

CM: Clients are increasingly asking about market volatility, goals-based financial planning, tax optimization, and wealth transfer. How can technology and AI tools help advisors address these specific areas more effectively? 

KED: Clients today are coming to advisors with more complex financial situations, which could be about weathering market volatility, planning or receiving a transfer of wealth, or adapting their financial plan as life evolves. The role of technology and AI tools is to help advisors address those needs more deeply, more holistically and with more personalization. 

Market volatility has been very top-of-mind for clients this year. In partnership with FactSet, we’ve piloted a transcript assistant that leverages AI to generate auditable summaries of earnings calls across dozens of U.S. companies. Instead of spending hours listening and taking notes, advisors can quickly access key themes, guidance and research, giving them time back to translate those insights into meaningful communications with clients. And this can be really valuable when emotions are high during periods of uncertainty.  

Additionally, our AI Accelerator program is starting work on looking at where AI can be used to produce customized insights for financial planning needs. That means AI-driven recommendations and scenarios reflect each client’s unique financial goals, rather than generic outputs. Whether it’s building a tax-efficient withdrawal strategy, modeling wealth-transfer scenarios or stress-testing a plan under different market conditions, these tools enable advisors to go deeper and tailor advice in ways that were previously highly time-intensive. 

CM: Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunities to invest in technology over the next three to five years to ensure advisors stay ahead of evolving client expectations? 

KED: The biggest opportunity for technological investments is to help advisors stay ahead of client expectations by giving them back the most precious resource they have: time. That’s why AI feels so transformative. It embodies the essence of innovation, which is simply solving a problem in a new way.  

As these tools mature, we see paths to expand into areas where we know clients are looking for support. By reducing friction and returning capacity to advisors, we can ensure they can show up more fully for their clients in a rapidly evolving environment.