Hardly a week goes by now without a client asking me about artificial intelligence (AI).

Sometimes the question is curious: “Are you using it?” Sometimes it’s skeptical: “Should I just be doing this myself?” And sometimes it’s a little anxious: “Does it change anything?”

All fair questions. After 30 years in this business, I’ve learned that when people are asking these questions, what they’re really asking is: Can I trust this?

AI is a useful tool, and yes, our team uses it.

It helps us process large amounts of information faster, stay current on markets and regulatory changes, and sharpen our work. Technology matters. Ignoring it wouldn’t serve our clients well.

But here’s what I have also learned: like any tool, AI is only as useful as the quality of the information behind it.

AI tools produce answers based on the information they are given.

If you ask a general-purpose AI about your retirement strategy, it will give you a general answer.

It doesn’t know that you sold your business three years ago and have a complicated tax situation.

It doesn’t know that your daughter has a disability and needs to be provided for in your estate.

It doesn’t know that you and your spouse disagree about how much risk is comfortable.

And it certainly doesn’t know what keeps you up at night, what matters most to your family, or what financial security actually means to you.

That kind of context only comes from time, trust and real conversation.

There are also real risks people need to understand.

AI-generated financial content can sound authoritative and be completely wrong.

It can miss tax implications, misunderstand your specific account structure, or give advice calibrated to a different country’s regulations. And sometimes, it doesn’t know, what it doesn’t know.

There are also serious and growing concerns about fraud. AI is being used to generate convincing phishing emails, fake documents and even voice scams impersonating financial institutions. If something arrives in your inbox or by phone that seems off, trust that instinct. Pause. Pick up the phone. Call us directly.

And perhaps most importantly: AI has no personal stake in your outcome. It doesn’t sit with the consequences if a plan misses something important. It won’t sit across from you when life gets complicated. That accountability matters.

So were do we actually use AI?

·We use AI in the same way a good professional uses any tool: to do the time-consuming groundwork more efficiently so that we can spend more of our time on the things that require judgment, experience and relationships.

·We use it to work more efficiently behind the scenes, so we can spend more time where we add the most value – judgement, strategy and relationships.

·Research.

·Scanning regulatory updates.

·Organizing information.

·Generating first drafts of analysis that we then review, question and refine.

But the thinking, the planning, and the conversations with you remain at the centre of how we do business.

No algorithm knows when a life event changes everything. No AI remembers that your daughter just got engaged, or that your business partner is thinking about retiring, or that six months ago you mentioned you might want to move closer to family. We do.

This is not about dismissing technology. IT’s about being honest about what it can do well, where it falls short, and why that matters when your financial future is involved.

AI can help run the numbers. But it doesn’t know your family, your values, your worries or your goals.

That part is still human. And at Walzak Family Wealth Management, it always will be.