AI moves from novelty to backbone as advisors reshape their fintech stacks

AI is reshaping advisor workflows, and the latest T3 survey of fintech use by advisory firms shows the technology moving from experiment to everyday toolkits, even as other parts of the stack shift more slowly.

The 2026 T3/Inside Information software survey, based on responses from nearly 3,000 advisors collected through February, has confirmed what everyone has known for the past year: generative and meeting‑focused AI has grown into a staple fixture across advisory practices.

“More than half of all advisors are now using one of the generative language AI programs, and it didn’t take long for the advisor marketplace to get there,” said the advisor tech survey report, which was announced at the T3 conference in New Orleans, Louisiana this week.

Apart from Gen AI, notetaking tools have already won sizable footholds, with the report gauging AI notetaking market penetration at 42.86%.

That adoption is changing how firms operate. Notetaking solutions such as Jump and Zocks are being used not only to transcribe and summarize meetings but increasingly to populate CRM fields, draft client followups, and speed onboarding. The survey framed those moves as slow creep into the territory of traditional CRM and workflow areas, with vendors that once offered a single narrowly defined capability adding scheduling, form‑filling, and integration features that overlap with established platforms.

The report also pointed to the continuing clash of all-in-one platforms against curated tech stacks. Apart from large integrated suites – notably Orion and Advyzon – custodial platforms such as Altruist and SEI are entering the fray with broader front‑office capabilities being layered into their offerings. Those suites appeal to firms that prefer a consolidated vendor relationship and tighter built‑in integrations.

On the flip side, many advisory firms continued to assemble best‑of‑breed stacks, mixing planning, portfolio reporting and analytics tools from several vendors. The survey noted a persistent hybrid picture, with a substantial proportion of firms using an all‑in‑one product while also deploying separate planning or portfolio tools.

Planning software and specialist planning modules also continued to gain traction. While core financial‑planning platforms remain widely used, the report revealed growing market penetration for estate planning, tax planning, and retirement distribution tools as advisors add depth to their advice. Holistiplan, FP Alpha, and Income Lab were among several honorable mentions for growing usage and strong user satisfaction ratings. 

Portfolio management and portfolio design tools are also drawing increased attention. Market penetration for portfolio management rose notably in the past year – from around 67% to 74% – and newer portfolio‑design offerings such as YCharts and Kwanti have gained traction among advisors interested in model construction, stress analysis, and direct indexing features. Investment‑analytics and stress‑testing categories showed robust user satisfaction, even where penetration is mixed.

"Dually-registered and wirehouse-affiliated advisors value their CRM and Planning slightly more than fee-only advisors, and value Portfolio Management less than their fee-only counterparts," the report noted. "Portfolio Management solutions were generally more important to larger firms than smaller ones."

Against those adoption gains, the survey highlights a notable vulnerability: cybersecurity. Despite high satisfaction scores for vendors that advisors do use, total category penetration remains low – roughly one in five firms, according to the report.

"Overall, a consistent two-thirds to three-fourths of the marketplace appears to be relying on local IT support to meet their cyber needs," the report said. "It bears repeating: cyberseurity and IT are two very different functions, requiring very different types of expertise."