Salvatore M. Capizzi, CEPA, CBDA, is Dunham's Chief of Sales & Marketing and a 2026 Wealthies CMO of the Year Finalist. His work focuses on retirement planning, emerging trends for financial advisors, and advanced tax, trust, and estate strategies.
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Agentic AI lets software observe information, make decisions and take actions within defined guardrails. For financial advisors, it could support meeting preparation, client monitoring and onboarding—while requiring clear governance, human oversight and compliance controls when it touches client data, communications or investment decisions.
What You Need to Know
Agentic AI can perform multi-step tasks within defined limits rather than simply answer prompts.
For advisors, the near-term opportunity is more time for planning, client service, meeting preparation and follow-up.
Autonomous systems may increasingly affect market infrastructure and round-the-clock workflows, though the effects on market behavior remain uncertain.
Adoption should begin with clear permissions, testing, documentation and human supervision—not unsupervised portfolio or client decisions.
Why Agentic AI Matters for Financial Advisors
Even if you already had your coffee, grab another one because this one is worth your full attention.
For as long as any of us has been in this business, we have all been chasing the same two goals. We want to build better portfolios for our clients and find more time to actually take care of them.
Now imagine hiring the Sales Assistant who also happens to be a CFA.
This assistant never gets tired, never calls in sick, never asks for vacation time, quietly prepares for client meetings, monitors markets around the clock, and gives you more time to focus on the one thing that matters most, your clients.
Now, let me ask you a question.
What if your best employee was not a person?
I have been saying for quite some time that financial advisors should embrace artificial intelligence rather than fear it. The more I study what is happening today, the more convinced I become that artificial intelligence will not replace great financial advisors. I believe it will make great financial advisors even better.
I am talking about Agentic AI.
Yes, I know exactly how that sounds, and I probably would have rolled my eyes a year ago as well, but please bear with me because something remarkable is taking shape.
What Is Agentic AI in Wealth Management?
Think of an AI agent as software, who operates within predefined guidelines, that does not wait for instructions to execute. It observes what is happening, makes a judgment call, and acts on it, all without a human in the loop approving each step.
It can spend money, analyze data, and execute a transaction at three in the morning or on a Sunday while you are watching football.
What happens when digital assets and AI meet, like when Deadpool and Wolverine joined forces in that iconic 2024 movie?
Well, maybe not iconic.
Traditional payment systems were built for people. They assume a legal identity, a bank account, business hours, and transaction sizes that make economic sense.
Visa charges roughly 30 cents per transaction. That works fine when someone is buying a pair of shoes, but it falls apart completely when an AI agent tries to pay 3 cents for a single weather data API query. The fee costs ten times as much as the thing being purchased.(1)
Blockchain infrastructure solves that problem. Networks like Base can settle transactions for a fraction of a penny for in-network transactions, which makes tiny, automated payments not just possible but practical at an enormous scale.(1)
Why Agentic AI Is Moving From Concept to Financial Infrastructure
My Coinbase account and their new Coinbase x402 now support direct USDC payments by AI agents. I would love to try it, but I have not figured out how to pre-clear trades with it!
The x402 protocol empowers AI agents to automatically pay for the data they need, while "Coinbase for Agents" enables those agents to execute cryptocurrency trades 24/7 in my Coinbase account, all within rigid parameters I define.
By early 2026, there were already more than 104,000 AI agents registered and ready to work across more than 15 different platforms. (1)
Stablecoin transaction volume hit $33 trillion in 2025, up 72% year over year, with total supply crossing $300 billion. (2)
On Solana’s decentralized exchange ecosystem, the majority of volume now comes from automated agents rather than human traders, and on peak days, that share climbs above 70%. (3)
Is Agentic AI a Trend or Fad?
The question I had to answer myself was whether this is a trend or a fad. What I find fascinating is that the biggest names in traditional finance are not watching from the sidelines.
On June 10 of this year, Mastercard launched something called Agent Pay for Machines. It is a protocol that lets AI agents authorize and settle transactions on Mastercard’s global network, including in stablecoins, built in partnership with more than 30 firms, including Coinbase and Ripple.(4)
Amazon Web Services launched its own agentic payments platform built alongside Coinbase and Stripe.(5)
When companies like Mastercard and Amazon adopt this, it is hard for me to imagine they are chasing a fad.
In my view, something major may be happening.
What Agentic AI Could Mean for Portfolios You Manage
Human trading has always had a rhythm.
It wakes up with New York, heats up through the London overlap, goes quiet overnight, and you can set your watch to it. For me, 6:30 a.m. Pacific time has a special meaning every Monday through Friday.
Agents do not have a watch, and they do not sleep.
They are working at three in the morning, on holidays, even during your daughter’s college graduation ceremony (no boos for AI, please).
It does this whenever a workflow is triggered. And as agent-driven volume becomes a larger share of total market activity, that familiar daily rhythm starts to flatten out.
A market that is open 24 hours a day may increasingly behave like one that actually is.
How Financial Advisors Can Use Agentic AI
Research suggests Agentic AI can cut the time advisors spend on manual prospecting by 40%–50%, increase net new AUM by 30%–40%, and reduce onboarding costs by 30%–40% while speeding up onboarding by 50%. (6)
AI agents can monitor client accounts continuously, flag potential life events and prepare a personalized planning review before a meeting starts. (7)
Bank of America’s Erica has evolved beyond a chatbot, orchestrating workflows and driving outcomes for clients without waiting for a human to initiate each step. (8)
Fidelity estimates that AI tools, including agent-based systems, could lift advisor productivity by 25%–40% over time. (9)
Advisors who have already started using AI for meeting prep and note-taking consistently report the same thing: they are more present in client conversations, so the relationship gets deeper, not thinner. (10)
This is the very reason I believe AI might be the best thing to happen to our industry, because Agentic AI does not push you out of the room. It gives you more room to do what only you can do as a human in the client relationship.
The Risk of Sitting Still
The firms that build the infrastructure for an AI-enabled practice now could compound that advantage. The ones that wait could find themselves playing catch-up in a market that is not slowing down.
I am not trying to scare you. It is just how compounding works, and we explain compounding to clients every single day, don’t we?
None of this means you hand the portfolio to an AI Agent and go play golf. Human involvement is not optional. Regulators and clients alike will expect clear human supervision over anything AI touches. Your role as a fiduciary and client relationship management is not going anywhere.
My key point is that the advisor at risk is not the one using AI.
It is the one who assumes that, because the current tools feel familiar to both compliance and them, no new tools are needed.
Closing Thoughts on Agentic AI in Wealth Management
There are three things that I believe are true at the same time.
Agentic AI is not a theory. Autonomous agents are already a growing force in financial markets. The infrastructure is live, institutional adoption is accelerating, and transaction volumes continue to climb.
This technology is changing how markets behave. As machine-driven activity becomes a larger share of trading, the traditional rhythm of the market will continue to evolve, and the way prices move may evolve with it.
The same technology that is reshaping markets is also reshaping what it means to run a great advisory practice. Advisors who embrace Agentic AI may have more time to focus on their clients, become more efficient, and be better positioned to compete in the years ahead.
Clients will still need someone they trust with their financial lives, and those clients may find their way to the advisors who recognized what was happening and prepared for it.
Refill your coffee.
There is a lot more to talk about.
FAQ
What is Agentic AI in wealth management? Agentic AI refers to AI systems that can observe data, make decisions, and take action within defined parameters. In wealth management, that may include client monitoring, meeting preparation, workflow automation, portfolio alerts, and transaction-related tasks.
Will Agentic AI replace financial advisors? I do not believe Agentic AI will replace great financial advisors. I believe it will make great financial advisors more efficient by giving them more time to focus on clients, planning, trust, and judgment.
How can financial advisors use AI agents? Financial advisors can use AI agents for meeting prep, note-taking, client monitoring, onboarding workflows, prospecting support, market monitoring, and personalized review preparation.
What is the biggest risk of Agentic AI for advisors? The biggest risk is assuming the current toolset is enough. Advisors will still need human supervision, compliance controls, and fiduciary judgment, but firms that prepare earlier may build a meaningful advantage.
This communication is general in nature and provided for educational and informational purposes only. It should not be considered or relied upon as legal, tax or investment advice or an investment recommendation, or as a substitute for legal or tax counsel. Any investment products or services named herein are for illustrative purposes only and should not be considered an offer to buy or sell, or an investment recommendation for, any specific security, strategy or investment product or service. Always consult a qualified professional or your own independent financial professional for personalized advice or investment recommendations tailored to your specific goals, individual situation, and risk tolerance. All examples are hypothetical and are for illustrative purposes only.
Information contained in the materials included is believed to be from reliable sources, but no representations or guarantees are made as to the accuracy or completeness of information.
Digital assets involve significant risks, including volatility, liquidity constraints, technological risks, cybersecurity risks, evolving regulatory treatment, and the potential loss of principal. References to digital assets are provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any digital asset.
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