John O’Connell Featured in Advisor Perspectives: AI Washing in WealthTech: How to Tell the Real from the Relabeled
John O’Connell was recently published in Advisor Perspectives on the AI-washing problem in WealthTech. Just as greenwashing described managers marketing ESG claims they couldn’t back up, AI washing describes vendors relabeling rules-based automation as AI to justify premium pricing, and the market is now flooded with claims of wildly varying credibility. His single most diagnostic question is the “turn it off” test: if you disabled the AI, what would be left? If the platform stops working, the AI is core; if not, it’s just a layer on top. He also stresses this is now a regulatory problem, not just a marketing one, with SEC enforcement escalating and FINRA extending the supervision chain to third-party vendors, so a firm marketing inflated “AI-powered” claims may share the exposure.
