The future of financial services is personal, intelligent and digital

This shift is being accelerated by a reordering of wealth. An estimated $124 trillion will change hands over the next two decades, while the profile of the primary client is changing with it: female-controlled wealth grew 51% between 2018 and 2023, and women in the US are expected to control $34 trillion by 2030. Today’s clients arrive with expectations shaped not by banks, but by every digital experience in their lives, raising the bar for financial institutions.

“Clients judge banking not in isolation, but alongside every digital experience they engage with,” says Ebrahim Samodien, CIO at Investec Private Bank. “Speed, personalisation and seamless journeys are no longer differentiators, but baseline expectations.”

Against this backdrop, Investec is reframing the private client experience: not around beating benchmarks but around helping clients achieve financial freedom and personal purpose, however they define it.

The common thread is context. Across private banking and wealth management, the shift is away from products and transactions in isolation and towards a deeper understanding of the individual – how clients transact, invest, plan and make decisions over time.

As Kerusha Kanjee, CIO at Investec Wealth & Investment International, explains: "Trust remains at the heart of wealth management, particularly as clients navigate major life events, support their families and pursue their ambitions. AI can never replace the human relationships that remain at the heart of wealth management, but it can help strengthen them. Through the strategic use of data, insights and digital capabilities, institutions can better understand what matters most to each client, anticipate changing needs and create more intuitive, personalised experiences. The real value of technology lies in its ability to help advisers engage with greater context, empathy and understanding, ensuring every interaction feels connected, relevant and distinctly human."

The shift to omnichannel and hyper-personalisation

Client experience now drives technology decisions. The future lies in true omnichannel banking, where clients move seamlessly between digital and human interaction, with context preserved across every touchpoint. Routine needs are handled digitally, while complex decisions shift to human expertise. Technology does not replace people but enables a more meaningful engagement.

This becomes more relevant as clients operate across borders, where day-to-day financial needs can quickly become complex: moving money internationally, managing different currencies and keeping control across markets.

Responding to this shift, solutions such as Investec’s multicurrency pockets use Intelligent Routing™ to automatically select the appropriate currency for a transaction, reducing friction for clients operating across currencies and jurisdictions. The value lies not in the technology, but in how it responds to changing client expectations for simpler, more intuitive cross-border banking experiences.

Personalisation is also entering a new phase. “Driven by behavioural data, predictive modelling and advanced analytics - used within established privacy, security and governance frameworks - financial institutions can increasingly anticipate major life and business events before clients actively seek solutions,” adds Samodien. “This is reflected in our propensity models that are linked to areas such as home loans and vehicle finance. These tools anticipate client needs, present tailored scenarios and enable more confident decision-making – marking a shift to insight-led engagement, where technology supports clients at critical moments.”

As life evolves, so too does the relationship people have with wealth. The way it is created, grown, protected and ultimately used changes over time. Expectations from a wealth manager evolve as well, shifting from a focus on products and the performance of funds to a broader conversation about opportunity, security and long-term impact.

As client expectations continue to evolve, AI is helping create more meaningful and personalised client experiences. In wealth management, its greatest value is the time it gives back to advisers. By reducing the effort spent on routine tasks, advisers can focus on what matters most: understanding their clients, providing trusted guidance and wisdom.

Increasingly, AI is being applied to help wealth managers spend less time searching for information and more time applying it. By reducing the effort spent on routine tasks, they are given their most valuable asset back – time. This enables individuals and teams to focus on understanding clients more deeply, anticipating changing needs and creating more personalised experiences. As Kanjee says, "We're not replacing relationships, we're protecting them, because every minute we automate is time reinvested into our clients and understanding their needs."

What will define the next decade?

The leading institutions of the next decade will not be those with the most visible technology, but those whose technology feels almost invisible, working seamlessly in the background to remove friction, preserve context and give clients confidence that their information, assets and interactions remain protected.

Ultimately, the future of financial services is not about technology alone. It is about using technology to understand people better across the full private client relationship, meeting them where they are with experiences that feel personal, intelligent and human. That is what will distinguish the institutions clients choose to trust.

To read more of Investec's latest insights on innovation and technology, visit Investec Focus.

The original article appeared in BusinessDay.