John O’Connell Spoke at Financial Planning ADVISE AI 2025 Conference: AI can whip up a financial plan in seconds. But can advisors trust it?

John O’Connell was featured in this article from Financial Planning Magazine highlighting his keynote session from the 2025 ADVISE AI Conference in Las Vegas, in which he showcased popular AI tools in front of the live audience – including demonstrating how AI tools like Perplexity can instantly generate detailed financial plans and reports. He highlighted how these AI-driven reports, when fed with data like an Oracle earnings statement, can rival the output of Chartered Financial Analysts while saving hours of manual work. While attendees were impressed by the speed and substance, O’Connell stressed that such outputs often rely on assumptions and may omit direct recommendations, making them useful as a starting point but not as finished advice.

He underscored the importance of keeping human experts involved to review AI-generated documents for errors, biases, and “hallucinations”—fabricated information or distorted conclusions from incomplete data. He described AI as excellent for generating first drafts, especially for clients with simpler financial needs, but insisted that only experienced financial planners should finalize advice for clients.