AI can’t scale an adviser’s attention
Faster processing can expand a service business, but growth still runs through the scarce human capacity to pay attention and make sound judgments.
Developed from a conversation between Pete Winn, Kane Leersen and Andy David
AI can move more work through predefined processes, but it cannot give one person unlimited attention. Andy described using AI across several projects and finding that each additional context switch made him less effective. The useful limit was one or two active projects because the work still reached points where he had to review what was happening and apply judgment.
Kane sees the same constraint in financial advice. Corporate models promote a target of 300 family units for each adviser, yet he believes a person who wants deep, empathetic client relationships will top out closer to 130 to 150. Technology may accelerate compliance, reporting and other processing, but it does not scale an adviser’s capacity to remember a client’s family, understand their circumstances and guide them through complex decisions.
This changes the logic of growth for an AI-enabled advice business. As automation increases throughput, more work arrives at the points where human judgment is required. Kane’s response is to invest in more advisers who can bring attention and empathy into those processes, rather than assigning ever more relationships to each person. AI creates the capacity to serve more clients, while people remain responsible for the relationships that make the service valuable.