SENTIENT® is an artificial intelligence consultancy framework provided by X from GENERAL INTELLIGENCE PLC to financial advisory companies. It addresses the strategic, technical, commercial and institutional questions that arise when a financial advisory business is considering the development, acquisition or application of increasingly capable artificial intelligence. Its purpose is to establish where artificial intelligence can create genuine and durable value in the provision of financial advice, how that value may best be realised and where human judgement, professional expertise, established practice or a simpler approach may be preferable.
The framework is informed by the research into artificial intelligence undertaken by X from GENERAL INTELLIGENCE PLC. That research considers the development of machine intelligence from scientific, technical, organisational, economic and institutional perspectives, including emerging computational capabilities, artificial intelligence architectures, reasoning systems, intelligent agents, evaluation, safety, governance and regulation. The purpose of this work is not to follow technological fashion, but to understand the significance of developments as the field evolves and to distinguish demonstrated capability from aspiration, material progress from transient enthusiasm and strategic significance from technological novelty.
Our starting proposition is simple: artificial intelligence is a means, not an end.
For financial advisory companies, that proposition has particular significance. Advice is not simply the production or transmission of information. It involves understanding circumstances, interpreting information, exercising judgement, communicating conclusions and accepting responsibility for the quality and consequences of that advice. SENTIENT® therefore begins with the client objective, the source of the value being sought and the decision that needs to be made; not with the technology itself.
RESEARCH AND INTELLIGENCE
X from GENERAL INTELLIGENCE PLC undertakes independent, research-informed analysis of artificial intelligence and its implications for organisations, markets and institutions. Our research extends beyond currently available products and platforms. We examine developments in the underlying science and technology, the evolution of computational architectures and intelligent systems, emerging methods of reasoning and learning, the development of increasingly autonomous systems and the governance and regulatory questions that accompany them.
For financial advisory companies, this research is considered in the context of the particular characteristics of advisory work: the interpretation of financial information, the understanding of individual and institutional circumstances, professional judgement, client relationships, confidentiality, regulation and the responsibility associated with making or supporting consequential recommendations. Particular attention is given to the relationship between technological capability and practical significance. A new capability may be technically important without being commercially useful to an advisory business; conversely, a relatively modest development may have substantial consequences when combined with appropriate information, expertise, infrastructure or changes in the way advice is delivered.
We therefore examine evidence from scientific literature, technical research, recognised standards, regulation, operational experience and other relevant sources. Where evidence is incomplete or competing interpretations exist, uncertainty is identified rather than concealed. This provides the intellectual foundation upon which SENTIENT® approaches strategic and commercial questions.
STRATEGY
SENTIENT® assists financial advisory companies in determining the appropriate strategic role of artificial intelligence within their businesses.
This may include assessing where artificial intelligence could create commercial advantage, identifying and prioritising potential applications, evaluating organisational readiness, considering alternative approaches and determining the circumstances in which an artificial intelligence initiative should proceed.
Particular attention is given to the relationship between artificial intelligence and the company's underlying business model. A technically impressive capability is of limited value if it does not strengthen the economics, competitiveness, resilience, client proposition or long-term prospects of the enterprise.
Financial advisory businesses depend upon a combination of information, expertise, judgement and trust. Artificial intelligence may increase the capacity of an adviser to analyse information, prepare material, identify relevant considerations or support decision-making, but greater computational capability does not necessarily constitute better advice. The relevant question is whether the technology makes a meaningful contribution to the quality, effectiveness, economics or accessibility of the advisory relationship.
A sound artificial intelligence strategy must consider not only where the technology should be adopted, but where it should not.
INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT
SENTIENT® provides independent assessment of proposed artificial intelligence initiatives and the assumptions upon which they depend.
For a financial advisory company, this may involve examining a proposed artificial intelligence product, platform, system, model or business application; the problem it is intended to address; the benefits expected from it; and the conditions necessary for those benefits to be realised.
Assessment may include consideration of analytical capability, accuracy, reliability, robustness, confidentiality, security, privacy, explainability, information quality, data provenance, integration, intellectual property, regulatory considerations, supplier dependency, cost and the longer-term consequences for the business.
Particular attention may be required where artificial intelligence is intended to contribute to advice, recommendations or other activities affecting a client's financial interests. The existence of a capable system does not in itself transfer professional responsibility from the adviser to the system. The respective responsibilities of the adviser, the organisation and the technology must remain clear.
The purpose is to establish whether the proposed application is capable of delivering the outcome sought and whether the investment, complexity and organisational commitment required are justified.
ADVICE AND JUDGEMENT
The defining characteristic of financial advice is not the possession of information but the exercise of informed judgement in relation to a particular circumstance.
SENTIENT® therefore considers carefully the distinction between information, analysis, recommendation and advice. Artificial intelligence may assist with the collection, organisation and interpretation of information, identify patterns or considerations that might otherwise be overlooked and increase the capacity of an adviser to prepare and review material. It does not follow that the resulting output should be treated as advice, or that responsibility for the resulting judgement should be delegated to the system.
The appropriate allocation of responsibility between people and machines is consequently a central consideration. Where an artificial intelligence capability contributes to a consequential recommendation or decision, the basis upon which that contribution is made should be sufficiently understood to permit appropriate professional scrutiny. The objective is not to preserve human involvement for its own sake, nor to automate for its own sake, but to establish where each can make the more appropriate contribution.
COMMERCIAL VALUE
Artificial intelligence can require substantial expenditure as well as significant commitments of management attention, technical capability and organisational resources.
SENTIENT® provides a framework for evaluating such decisions in the context of the long-term value of the financial advisory business. We consider anticipated commercial benefits alongside acquisition and operating costs, technical dependencies, implementation requirements, organisational consequences, uncertainty, risk and the opportunity cost of alternative uses of capital and management attention.
For an advisory company, commercial value may arise through improved analysis, greater adviser capacity, better client service, more effective use of specialist knowledge, improved consistency, reduced administrative burden or the development of new forms of advice and client engagement. Such benefits must, however, be distinguished from technological activity which merely increases complexity or reduces human involvement without producing a corresponding improvement in the quality or economics of the business.
Our research into emerging artificial intelligence capabilities also enables investment questions to be considered against the direction of technological development rather than solely against the capabilities available at the point of decision.
The relevant question is not whether a proposed artificial intelligence capability is sophisticated, fashionable or technically impressive. It is whether the investment is capable of making a worthwhile and enduring contribution to the advisory business.
TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATION
SENTIENT® enables financial advisory companies to evaluate artificial intelligence technologies against their actual commercial and professional requirements rather than against supplier claims or prevailing technological fashion.
Assessment may include artificial intelligence models and their capabilities, performance, reliability, resilience, security, privacy, explainability, architecture, integration, intellectual property, supplier dependency and total cost of ownership. It may also require consideration of the direction in which the underlying technology is developing. Understanding what is likely to change can be as important as understanding what is available today, particularly where a significant investment would create long-term technological dependencies.
Artificial intelligence may have application across the activities of a financial advisory company, including research, information analysis, client information, financial analysis, preparation of advice, document and correspondence processing, knowledge management, client servicing, workflow, decision support, monitoring and other activities in which machine intelligence may improve the quality, speed or economics of work.
Applications are assessed according to their contribution to the business rather than their novelty. A conventional technology, a better process, additional professional capacity, organisational change or no technological intervention at all may produce a better result. That conclusion is entirely consistent with the SENTIENT® approach.
The appropriate technology is the one capable of meeting the legitimate objective with an acceptable balance of value, complexity, reliability and risk.
GOVERNANCE AND PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
For financial advisory companies, the introduction of increasingly capable artificial intelligence can create questions of accountability, confidentiality, security, professional responsibility, regulatory compliance and institutional control.
SENTIENT® considers the governance arrangements necessary to ensure that significant artificial intelligence capabilities remain properly understood, controlled and accountable. Depending upon the circumstances, this may include decision rights, human oversight, risk assessment, testing, monitoring, documentation, information controls, incident management and criteria for reviewing, modifying or discontinuing an artificial intelligence initiative.
The governance implications of artificial intelligence cannot always be separated from its technological development. Our research therefore considers emerging questions of safety, evaluation, accountability, regulation and institutional control alongside developments in capability.
For financial advisory companies, governance must also preserve the distinction between technological assistance and professional responsibility. An adviser may make use of increasingly capable systems without surrendering responsibility for the advice ultimately provided to a client.
Governance should provide effective control without imposing unnecessary complexity or inhibiting legitimate commercial development.
INDEPENDENT CHALLENGE
A central purpose of SENTIENT® is to provide informed and independent challenge before significant technological, commercial or organisational commitments are made.
We examine whether the business problem has been properly defined, whether the anticipated benefit is supported by evidence, whether credible alternatives have been considered, whether the proposed solution is unnecessarily complex and whether the advisory business will retain meaningful control over its investment and resulting capability.
We also consider whether the proposed use of artificial intelligence is consistent with the nature of the advisory relationship itself. Technology should strengthen the ability of the organisation to understand and serve its clients; it should not be introduced merely because a task can technically be automated.
For financial advisory companies operating in markets in which trust, judgement and professional responsibility are fundamental, independent challenge can be particularly important where technological expectations are moving faster than established commercial evidence.
The appropriate conclusion may be to proceed, to proceed differently, to investigate further, to defer or not to proceed.
Independence requires the willingness to reach any of these conclusions.
PRINCIPLES
The SENTIENT® framework is founded upon five principles: long-term owner value, contribution, judgement, simplicity and ordinary decency.
Long-term owner value is the governing commercial objective. Artificial intelligence should strengthen the enterprise over time rather than merely produce an attractive immediate proposition.
Contribution concerns the proper allocation of responsibility between people, machines and institutions. Decisions should reflect evidence, capability, performance and purpose.
Judgement concerns the proper exercise of professional responsibility. Artificial intelligence may extend analytical capacity, but the quality of advice depends upon the appropriate interpretation and application of information to the circumstances under consideration.
Simplicity is a commercial discipline. The simplest arrangement capable of achieving the required outcome with acceptable reliability and risk is ordinarily preferable.
Ordinary decency establishes an essential boundary to commercial rationality. Honesty, proper conduct, legitimate confidentiality, responsibility and fair dealing are fundamental to durable institutions and to the relationship between an adviser and the client.
PROPORTIONATE ENGAGEMENT
The scale of consultancy should reflect the significance and complexity of the decision under consideration.
SENTIENT® may be applied through a focused strategic assignment, independent assessment, investment evaluation, technology review, application assessment, governance review or continuing strategic advice.
We favour the smallest engagement capable of answering the question properly. The scope, objectives, responsibilities, outputs, timetable and commercial terms are established in proportion to the matter under consideration.
The initial requirement is to understand the financial advisory business, the artificial intelligence question being considered, the decision that needs to be made and any material commercial, technical, regulatory or institutional constraints. The appropriate scope of consultancy can then be determined.
THE TEST
The SENTIENT® framework ultimately asks:
- What creates long-term value?
- What genuinely contributes to it?
- What requires professional judgement?
- Does artificial intelligence improve the quality of the advice or merely alter the process by which it is produced?
- Is artificial intelligence the appropriate means?
- Can the objective be achieved more simply?
- What are the enduring costs and risks?
- Can the proposed course of action be properly governed and controlled?
- Would the decision remain sound if technological fashion were removed from consideration?
SENTIENT® is not an exercise in finding reasons to deploy artificial intelligence. It is a framework for determining where artificial intelligence can create genuine and durable advantage within the financial advisory business.
FINANCIAL ADVISORY
SENTIENT® is particularly applicable to financial advisory companies developing, acquiring or evaluating artificial intelligence capabilities.
For such businesses, artificial intelligence can affect the quality and economics of analysis, the preparation and delivery of advice, the management of information, client service, research, operational processes and the allocation of professional capacity. Decisions concerning artificial intelligence may therefore have consequences extending well beyond the technology itself.
The significance of these decisions is amplified by the pace of development. A financial advisory company considering an artificial intelligence investment must assess not only present capability but the direction of technological progress, the durability of its assumptions and the possibility that emerging developments may alter the commercial proposition.
SENTIENT® brings these considerations together. It combines independent research into artificial intelligence with strategic, technical and institutional analysis to help financial advisory companies determine what matters, what is commercially justified and what should be done.
The emphasis is on the relationship between technology, advice, judgement, commercial value and institutional responsibility. We consider whether the proposed application addresses a substantive business requirement, whether its expected benefits are credible, whether the underlying technology is appropriate and whether the resulting capability can be operated with sufficient reliability, security, accountability and economic discipline.
The conclusion may be to proceed, to modify the proposition, to investigate further or not to proceed. The purpose of the consultancy is not to promote artificial intelligence, but to help financial advisory companies make better decisions about when and how it should be used.
X FROM GENERAL INTELLIGENCE PLC
SENTIENT® forms part of the wider artificial intelligence research and consultancy activities of X from GENERAL INTELLIGENCE PLC.
Our work is founded upon the proposition that meaningful understanding of artificial intelligence requires both intellectual breadth and practical judgement. Research establishes what is changing and why it matters; consultancy determines what those developments mean for a particular organisation and what, if anything, should follow.
For financial advisory companies, SENTIENT® provides a means of bringing those two disciplines together: independent understanding of artificial intelligence and disciplined commercial judgement about its application.
The name reflects the central question. As machines become increasingly capable of processing information, reasoning and assisting with complex decisions, the value of human advisory capability will depend increasingly upon knowing where intelligence should be augmented, where judgement must remain human and how the two should properly work together.
The objective is therefore not simply greater automation or greater technological capability. It is better judgement about what should be done.