Global adoption of artificial intelligence in all industries is happening at a breakneck pace—the retirement space included. It’s not a question of if but how it will affect plan advisors, sponsors, and participants. In our fall issue, we spoke with top advisors and experts about what to expect and how to take advantage.
Also, a retirement income call-to-action from NAPA member Nicole Corning, problems with Baby Boomer retirement, and the increased interest by sponsors and participants for non-traditional benefits. We also include the Advisors’ Choice Accolades—the top recordkeepers doing it right.
COVER STORY—HELP OR HYPE: AI’S IMPACT ON THE RETIREMENT PLAN SPACE
We asked ChatGPT to write an opening paragraph for an article on AI’s effect on 401(k) advisors and received the following response.
“In recent years, the financial industry has experienced a groundbreaking transformation, thanks to the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence technology. As robo-advisors and intelligent algorithms increasingly dominate the financial landscape, traditional 401(k) advisors are facing a paradigm shift in their role and the way they approach wealth management for retirement.This article delves into the profound impact of AI on 401(k) advisors, exploring the benefits, challenges, and the evolving relationship between human expertise and machine intelligence in shaping the future of retirement investment strategies.”
It pretty much nailed it, and we couldn’t resist using AI to introduce an AI piece. Human nature requires an initial rejection of new technology—electricity was sorcery and automobiles impractical. Even Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman famously predicted that the Internet “would go the way of the fax machine.”
Not so with AI. Its rapid advancement, especially in the roughly 10 months since the introduction of ChatGPT (an acronym for Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer), overwhelmed early skepticism. Even before ChatGPT’s release, AI was trending (mostly) positive, with well over half of respondents to an International Science Survey viewing AI as “mostly a good thing for society.”
Its impact on the retirement plan space, specifically, is the proverbial hot topic at many conferences and industry gatherings, with keynotes and breakout sessions dedicated to exploring its potential.
LINK TO THE FULL ISSUE: https://www.napa-net.org/the-magazine
