Microsoft Executive: AI to Transform Wealth Management

FILE PHOTO: A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, January 25, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, January 25, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
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Microsoft Executive: AI to Transform Wealth Management

FILE PHOTO: A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, January 25, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, January 25, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo

Artificial intelligence will bring major upheaval to wealth management, a Microsoft executive said, as the technology's potential to process information vastly reduces the hurdles required to compete with established banks.

AI's ability to condense financial data will allow just a few people to offer services that previously occupied entire teams in a bank, said Martin Moeller, head of AI & GenAI for financial services, EMEA, at Microsoft.

"Generative AI will reshape the competitive landscape," Moeller told Reuters. "AI will, for example, significantly lower the threshold for market entry for startups, similar to what the digitalization and internet wave did decades ago."

Since early 2024, Swedish payment service provider Klarna has been using AI from Microsoft's partner OpenAI which performs the work of 700 employees.
The world's largest asset manager, UBS, also sees great potential for AI. CEO Sergio Ermotti said this month it could boost productivity and make jobs easier.
Moeller said generative AI will reduce costs for newcomers, and it can also help family offices, private wealth managers for the super-rich that compete with wealth managers.
"Banks that have so far been barely active in wealth management could enter the business with the help of AI without having to invest much in customer advisors," he said.
AI's advance is gaining momentum from changing customer behavior, with young entrepreneurs increasingly willing to manage their investments themselves, Moeller said.
In response, many banks are working to enable customers to independently consolidate information using AI.
"Customers should have access to complex information 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Moeller. "Portfolio construction can also be handled by conventional AI."
AI currently does not advise on products or specific investment decisions, but the next stage of development, so-called "agentic AI", which makes independent decisions without human involvement, is expected to arrive in around two years.



Trump Offers Support to Musk's Car Company in a Surprising Post as Tesla Stock Plunges

Mar 22, 2025; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Elon Musk and President Donald Trump during the Division I Men's Wrestling Championship held at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images/File Photo
Mar 22, 2025; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Elon Musk and President Donald Trump during the Division I Men's Wrestling Championship held at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images/File Photo
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Trump Offers Support to Musk's Car Company in a Surprising Post as Tesla Stock Plunges

Mar 22, 2025; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Elon Musk and President Donald Trump during the Division I Men's Wrestling Championship held at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images/File Photo
Mar 22, 2025; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Elon Musk and President Donald Trump during the Division I Men's Wrestling Championship held at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images/File Photo

President Donald Trump took to social media Thursday morning to support Elon Musk's car company, a startling development given their bitter public feud.

”I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, Reuters reported.

The post wasn't enough to help Tesla's stock, which fell sharply after the company reported another quarter of lackluster financial results and Musk warned of some potentially “rough quarters” into next year. At midday, the stock was down around 9%.

Late Wednesday, Tesla said revenue fell 12% and profit dropped 16% in the April-June quarter. Many prospective buyers have been turned off by Musk’s foray into right-wing politics, and the competition has ramped up in key markets such as Europe and China.

Investors have been unnerved by Musk's social media spat with the president because Trump has threatened to retaliate by ending government contracts and breaks for Musk's various businesses, including Tesla.

But Trump struck a starkly different tone Thursday morning.

“Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon’s companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the US Government. This is not so!" Trump wrote. “The better they do, the better the USA does, and that’s good for all of us.”

After Trump's massive budget bill passed earlier this month, Tesla faces the loss of the $7,500 EV tax credit and stands to make much less money from selling regulatory credits to other automakers. Trump’s tariffs on countries including China and Mexico will also cost Tesla hundreds of millions of dollars, the company said on its earnings call.

Musk has blasted the budget bill on his own social media platform X for adding to US debt at a time when it is already too large. The Tesla CEO has called the budget pushed by the president a “disgusting abomination” and has threatened to form a new political party.

On Wednesday's call, Musk said the electric vehicle maker will face “a few rough quarters” as it moves into a future focused less on selling cars and more on offering people rides in self-driving cars. He also talked up the company's business making humanoid robotics. But he acknowledged those businesses are a ways off from contributing to Tesla’s bottom line.

Tesla began a rollout in June of its paid robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, and hopes to introduce the driverless cabs in several other cities soon. Musk told analysts that the service will be available to probably “half of the population of the US by the end of the year — that’s at least our goal, subject to regulatory approvals.”

“We’re in this weird transition period where we’ll lose a lot of incentives in the US,” Musk said, adding that Tesla “probably could have a few rough quarters” ahead. He added, though, “Once you get to autonomy at scale in the second half of next year, certainly by the end of next year, I would be surprised if Tesla’s economics are not very compelling.”