Have you ever tried to make a cake using AI? I’m guessing not. I try to invite AI to the table wherever possible. This idea was reinforced for me by Ethan Mollick’s excellent CoIntelligence book. Take it from me, the throat scratcher that came out of the oven would not win me a handshake from Paul Hollywood on the Great British Bake-off.

But, cake aside, AI is learning fast and offering immeasurable opportunities to enhance our lives, both at home and at work.

At our recent NextWealth Live event (you can catch up with it here; and get one of our limited £499 tickets for our 2025 event here) AI was the topic on everyone’s lips. From CEOs to paraplanners and marketing boffins, everyone is wondering what to do. Being early adopters can have its drawbacks (that cake again) but leaving it too late can mean you get left behind.

Around 20 years ago, my job was to report to a management team on who was searching for what on Google. There was much eye-rolling from the team at the number of people who were spelling things wrongly. There was much musing about the idiots (their customers) that couldn’t even spell. Now we all take it for granted that Google can work out what we mean and offer us the correct spelling. It did that by learning…and it never stops.

With so many opportunities offered by emerging AI, it’s hard to know where to start. This is why we’ve set up the NextWealth AI Lab, a community dedicated to helping wealth management firms harness the power of AI for their business and careers.

Aviva is hosting our first event on 14 May, which promises to set the scene for a rewarding format. The event is full, but we’ll publish a report on the discussion and a survey we have live in the field now. We also plan to host these regularly in future, so if getting on the front foot with AI is something that appeals to you, find out more about getting involved here.