Monday, August 3, 2026
Could AI collapse the advice tech stack within two years?
Paradino Co-Founder and CEO Alex Gassner joins Ally Selby and Courtenay Walker on Basis Points to discuss where AI is taking financial advice.
The discussion begins with AI, but quickly becomes a conversation about something much bigger: how advice businesses might operate when software no longer dictates the workflow.
Alex shares why he believes the advice tech stack could look very different within the next two years, while Courtenay offers the perspective from Fox & Hare a practice already putting AI to work.
Together they explore where AI genuinely adds value, where adviser judgement remains essential, and why the industry's biggest opportunity may be simplifying the way advice gets done.
Could AI collapse the advice tech stack?
For years, advice businesses have added software every time a new problem appeared. One system for CRM. Another for modelling. Another for research. Another for producing advice documents. Each solved its own problem, but together they created a workflow built around moving information from one application to the next.
Alex's view is that AI changes that dynamic.
Rather than adding another product to the stack, practices may end up with fewer systems than they have today. Information is captured once, held in one place, while specialist tools connect around it instead of becoming another destination advisers have to visit.
Whether that happens within two years is open for debate. The direction of travel is the more interesting part of the conversation.
"AI will cover the what. Humans will still cover the why."
One of the more memorable moments in the episode comes when Alex describes the relationship between AI and the adviser.
"AI will cover the what. Humans will still cover the why."
Preparing information is not the same as taking responsibility for advice.
Technology can assemble the facts, surface opportunities and draft the work. Judgement still belongs to the adviser sitting across the table from the client.
That's a very different proposition from replacing advisers altogether, and it's where much of the discussion lands.
Before you let AI near client advice
There's plenty of excitement around AI, but the conversation stays grounded in practical questions.
How should client information be handled?
Where does human review fit?
What makes a purpose-built advice platform different from a general-purpose AI model?
They're the questions advice businesses are already working through, which is exactly why this discussion feels timely.