What changes
Clients still want a person for the big decisions, and that’s likely to hold for years. What they don’t need is for that person to spend half the week typing file notes, chasing documents or drafting the first version of a letter. In the New Model, AI does all or most of the research, admin and drafting. The professional leads the relationship, checks the work and stands behind the advice.
The key word is process. Handing over the legwork means redesigning specific tasks so that AI does the first pass every time, rather than leaving staff to use it when they happen to remember. A named person checks the output against a short written standard, and the client file shows what was done.
Why it matters now
Much of the time on a typical file goes on work that AI tools can already do to a good first-draft standard: summarising meetings, extracting figures from statements and documents, researching a point and drafting routine letters and reports. Firms that hand this over free up professional time for the parts clients value most. That freed time is also what makes Move 5 possible, because you can’t serve more clients at a lower cost per client if every file still takes the same hours.
A checked process matters for regulation as much as for efficiency. An adviser’s suitability report, an accountant’s tax return and a solicitor’s advice letter all remain the professional’s responsibility. The check is where that responsibility is exercised, so it needs to be written down and applied the same way every time.
Checklist
- Pick three high-volume tasks from your Move 1 map. Good starting points are meeting notes, extracting data from client documents and routine first-draft letters. Record how long each one takes today.
- Write a one-page procedure for each task. Include the tool and prompt, the inputs, exactly what the reviewer must check, and where the output is saved on the client file.
- Run each procedure for four weeks on live work. Log the time taken, including checking, and every error the reviewer catches.
- Keep, fix or drop each procedure. Keep the ones that save time with an acceptable error rate, rework the ones that nearly work and drop the rest. Then choose the next three tasks and repeat.
Illustrative example
A financial planning firm carries out 150 annual reviews a year. Preparing each review, which means gathering valuations, updating the fact-find, drafting the report and writing the file note, takes about 4 hours, or 600 hours a year in total. After handing the data gathering and first drafts to AI, preparation takes about 1.5 hours per review, including a careful check by the paraplanner. That’s 225 hours a year, a saving of 375 hours. The firm puts half of that time back into longer review meetings and uses the rest to take on new clients.
Common mistakes
- Skipping the check to save more time. The saving comes from AI doing the first pass. Removing the professional review simply moves the risk onto the firm and its clients.
- Automating a poor process. If a task has unnecessary steps today, AI will reproduce them faster. Simplify the task before you hand it over.
- Not measuring before and after. Without timings you can’t show the saving, and you’ll struggle to set the new prices in Move 5.
Coaching your clients
Your clients are handing over their own legwork too, in their jobs and their businesses, and what you learn in this move is directly useful to them. An accountant can show a small business owner how the same approach works for invoicing and bookkeeping. A solicitor can explain what an employer should check before relying on AI-drafted contracts or staff policies. An adviser can talk a client through how AI is changing their sector and what that could mean for their income plans. Keep it practical, and share what actually worked in your own firm.