John O'Connell recently wrote in WealthManagement.com about why firms keep making expensive wealth tech mistakes: every AI tool looks impressive in a controlled demo where the data is clean, the workflow is choreographed, and the edge cases your firm would actually hit never surface, so the real trap is letting the vendor set the...
John O'Connell was recently featured in Kiplinger writing about how businesses and advisory firms should budget for AI. The problem isn't whether to spend, that decision is made, it's that firms treat AI like standard software when it's actually a variable cost that tracks consumption rather than headcount, so two advisers on the same...
You signed a contract for an AI tool. The bill arrives measured in something called tokens, or credits, or messages. Last month it cost one number. This month it costs twice that. Nobody on your leadership team can tell you why. You do not need to understand the engineering to fix this. You need to understand...
John O'Connell wrote this piece for Wealth Solutions Report on why RIAs facing Schwab's new $5 block trade fee should look at trading discipline before touching their pricing. Most firms can reduce their fee exposure through trading discipline alone, before any conversation about pricing strategy becomes necessary, he argues. Re-balancing frequency, drift bands, and...
John O'Connell wrote this piece for Rethinking65 on why advisors expanding their AI use should start in the back office, not with clients. According to J.D. Power's 2025 U.S. Financial Advisor Satisfaction Study, 35% of advisors identified AI as the top technology their firms should invest in, and satisfaction scores were measurably higher among...
John O'Connell, CEO of The Oasis Group, wrote this piece for Advisor Perspectives on why AI washing is now more than a marketing nuisance. It's become a real threat to the industry's ability to weather the coming advisor shortage. McKinsey's January 2026 analysis projected that nearly 40% of current financial advisors will retire within...
The trust industry has been largely absent from the AI governance conversation, treated as an afterthought in frameworks designed for RIAs and broker-dealers. That absence is dangerous.
Access The Oasis Group's AI WealthTech Map, a resource that financial advisors and wealth management firms can use to find leading artificial intelligence solutions and AI-focused firms serving the wealth management industry. The map follows the lifecycle of a wealth management relationship and is organized into 8 categories, identifying and categorizing 106 leading technology firms.
The trust industry has been largely absent from the AI governance conversation, treated as an afterthought in frameworks designed for RIAs and broker-dealers. That absence is dangerous.
The trust industry has been largely absent from the AI governance conversation, treated as an afterthought in frameworks designed for RIAs and broker-dealers. That absence is dangerous.
