How are Financial Marketers Thinking about Generative AI?
Given the hype surrounding generative artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential impact, we wanted to better understand how financial marketing teams are using AI.
We surveyed asset management marketing leaders about their expectations for how AI might affect the content they create and how their teams operate. The survey produced several predictable responses and some surprises reflecting the differing—and often conflicting—ways marketers are thinking about AI.
To view the survey’s full results, download the eBook here.
As Expected
Many different views. Respondents voiced their opinions on how they expect AI will affect their content and their teams. One respondent wrote, “It’s a massive opportunity to improve the work we do without losing the things that make our jobs fulfilling.” But another shared a different opinion: “I think it generates large quantities of low-value content, and I’m not interested in propagating more junk on the internet.” There were plenty of middle-of-the-road responses too, such as, “Watching, waiting, learning.”
Compliance is front of mind. When asked about potential barriers to implementing AI into their processes, marketers flagged many compliance-related issues. How marketing and compliance teams can work together to resolve these issues will go a long way in determining how well—and how quickly—AI is adopted.
Efficiency and speed rule. Every respondent who currently uses or plans to use AI expects it to make their teams more efficient, and most (91%) expect AI to help them execute their marketing efforts more quickly. One respondent stated, “Generative AI can be used as a tool to supercharge our marketers. We will be able to repurpose content faster, brainstorm ideas, and more efficiently consume large volumes of data and information.”
Well, that’s a surprise
Few expect to hire AI specialists in next year. Two-thirds of respondents believe that a lack of AI experience among their teams is a challenge to integrating AI, so we were surprised to see that so few (13%) expect to hire an AI specialist in the coming year. But 70% of respondents expect to train their current staff on using AI. While we expect that more firms will hire AI specialists as AI becomes more prominent in the coming years, in the near term, it appears that training will be the preferred staffing option.
Focus on improving operations and
internal comms. 
Among respondents who currently use or plan to use AI in the next 24 months, we correctly assumed that most expect to use it to create external content. However, we were (pleasantly) surprised that nearly as many plan to use it to increase internal operations and gain efficiencies. We view this as an encouraging sign that marketers are thinking broadly about how AI can help them deliver value in all aspects of their work.
More AI content for financial advisors and
institutional Investors. 
We were surprised to see that respondents expect to send AI-created content to financial advisors and institutional investors more than to a retail audience. Why did this surprise us? One of AI’s strengths is summarizing topics that are already well-covered by publicly available websites, which generally aligns with the level of information asset managers send to retail audiences. Conversely, AI struggles to create true thought leadership (i.e., distinct points of view that advance the conversation), and this is the type of insightful content institutional investors and financial advisors seek from asset managers.
About the Author Craig Darrah is director of content development at Wentworth Financial Communications. He has over two decades of marketing and communications experience in asset management, with deep knowledge in traditional and alternative investment strategies across public and private markets. He provides Wentworth clients with creative, compelling, and persuasive materials that feature crisp narratives and strong visuals.