There’s no shortage of enthusiasm among wealthtech vendors about artificial intelligence (AI) and what it can achieve for wealth advisors, staff, and clients. And why not? Generative AI is a transformative technology that’s reshaping wealth management.
And you won’t find a group that’s more enthusiastic about AI than our Parrot AI team. But before we set out to build the world’s best AI assistant for advisors, several of us spent our careers in cybersecurity—developing some of the most successful security products out there.
So, when it comes to security for AI (especially AI for financial services), let’s just say, “we have feelings.”
At Parrot AI by Advisor360°, our first design principle has always been:
What security features would a product need for us to feel comfortable inviting it into our meetings?
And we continue to focus on that question every day.
It might sound cliché, but we’ve built security and privacy into Parrot from the ground up. It’s not an afterthought or a secondary feature—it’s foundational. That’s easy to say, and very hard to do.
But it’s also hard for customers to discern what’s truly secure. Even sophisticated security teams have a tough time seeing what’s happening behind the scenes. Compliance disclosures like SOC 2 can indicate what a vendor is doing—butnot whether they did it well.
We can help. If you’re considering adopting an AI solution, here are three questions to ask your wealthtech vendor to help you determine how seriously they take security:
1. Who at your company has access to my data? Can you put that in writing?
Most AI notetaker solutions—at least those that are wealth-specific—allow a broad array of their employees access to your data for testing, marketing, support, and product decisions. That’s not good for you or your clients…your recordings should be private.
For the record: Access to customer data in Parrot is highly restricted.
2. How many dedicated security people do you have on your team? Can you put that in writing?
Take it from a lifelong entrepreneur, most early-stage startups don’t have the budget to fund serious security teams—and much of the AI technology in our space today is coming from startups. Suffice to say, having a security team is important to ensuring your data stays private.
For the record: At Advisor360° we believe security is a team sport. Everyone has a role to play in keeping our environment secure, not just our eight dedicated security professionals. Our CISO has spent his whole career defending financial services companies.
3. How much did you spend on your last penetration test? Can you put that in writing?
One of the best ways to measure system security is through a penetration test. However, it’s an unspoken fact in the industry that a single penetration test can cost anywhere from $5,000 to over $100,000. For the most part, you get what you pay for.
Early-stage businesses often shop for the cheapest pen test for two reasons. First, it conserves cash. Second, they find fewer things they need to fix.
For the record: Advisor360° carries out a mixture of continual in-house testing and external third-party penetration testing to ensure our environment has the highest level of security.
At Advisor360°, there’s nothing we take more seriously than earning your trust by assuring the security and privacy of our clients and your information.
