The end of the paraplanner?
Andy_Schleider
Member
in General
A few of us are members of the Lifetalk Mastermind Facebook group, and there is an interesting point that has been raised.
Does ChatGPT signal the beginning of the end for paraplanners? Maybe not this, and probably not now, but do you think AI may replace us in the future?
Comments
I think of AI like the internet and search engines. Did it kill off some businesses, for sure. Encyclopaedia sales probably aren't what they were 30 years ago, for example.
But, fundamentally, the internet made most humans who could use its potential better than most of those who couldn't.
AI will be the same. If my working lifetime I doubt it will become trusted enough to deliver a financial planning strategy to someone who is drawing down, or is building, wealth across multiple tax regimes. A human who has studied that one specific discipline and knows where to find answers is going to remain the preferred choice of the human they're helping. AI is going to become one of the places to find answers.
What's at threat is straightforward, repeatable tasks that don't rely on significant learning and that remain stable. Just like robots have replaced human physical labour in 'fulfilment centres' for various industries over the past decade, so too AI will replace mental labour in the service industries where it is capable of doing so. Copywriting and proofreading are ripe pickings for the robots. Clickbait journalism too. And more physical jobs, especially where the human interacts directly with a machine to deliver physical stuff. I imagine autonomous trucks on the motorway network, drones delivering parcels, robot cleaners etc.
Think about it from a ROI perspective. We aren't a big sector and we do something that is relatively specialist and technically demanding from a 'thinking' perspective. If you're investing in AI capability, chances are you're going to hit something with a far greater market penetration than paraplanning.
What we really need to worry about is what is going to occupy the time of all the people that the robots and the AI do make redundant. And who is going to pay for them to be sat at home?
From the horses mouth (well, ChatGPT's!)
No, ChatGPT is a tool that can assist paraplanners in their work, but it does not replace the role of human paraplanners. Whilst ChatGPT can generate text based on a given prompt, it lacks the ability to understand context and make complex judgements, which are important skills for paraplanners. Additionally, ChatGPT also require humans to verify and validate the generated output before it can be used.