JIFFY.ai & Docupace: "Docupace, the leader in cloud-based fintech digital operations software for the wealth management industry, and JIFFY.ai, the innovative provider of true end-to-end intelligent automation applications, announced the companies are jointly developing the wealth management industry's most powerful suite of automation solutions; deploying leading-edge capabilities such as intelligent document processing, artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation (RPA), as well as machine learning and advanced analytics to deliver benefits at scale across enterprise operations." Michael Pinsker, founder and president at Docupace, stated, "Docupace and JIFFY.ai are leveraging our collective wisdom to take the most advanced technologies and pointing them directly at our clients and the wealth management industry's biggest pain points and most common issues of operational inefficiencies." RISE Financial: "RISE Financial, a subsidiary of Siebert Financial Corp., a provider of financial services, announced that it has completed the acquisition of a 20% equity stake in Hedge Connection, the only woman-owned fintech company offering a patented enterprise capital introduction SaaS solution through its product Fintroz. As part of the transaction, RISE Financial acquired the right to purchase up to the remaining 80% of Hedge Connection. Hedge Connection's powerful Fintroz platform allows hedge fund managers to connect with a global pool of institutional investors and retain control over how their information is shared while helping allocators to streamline due diligence. The Fintroz platform provides RISE Financial and its division, RISE Prime, with a technology solution to efficiently scale a comprehensive capital introduction program for clients."

Understanding the application of AI to business requires an understanding of context -- strategy, customers, company culture, and so forth. One application worthy of study across organizations is wealth management. A number of banks and investment firms are trying to use AI to improve that management -- either to eliminate human wealth advisers altogether or, much more commonly, to augment their efforts. Our survey research suggests that while many organizations have challenges with production deployments of AI, wealth management is a clear exception. We've studied wealth management strategies using AI and interviewed the analytics and AI officers who support them at several different companies.

Autonomous finance uses AI to make financial decisions on behalf of consumers without the need for direct human input. The service has become especially relevant over the last year as consumers have struggled to maintain financial health during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, Paul Condra, head of emerging technology research, and Robert Le, senior emerging tech analyst, discuss how autonomous finance helps consumers better manage their financial health and performance, as well as the challenges for the technology--including computing costs, consumer trust, regulations and transaction categorization. Listen to all of Season 3 and subscribe to get future episodes of "In Visible Capital" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen. For inquiries, please contact us at podcast@pitchbook.com. Transcript Adam Lewis: Welcome back to "In Visible Capital," a show that discusses the inner workings of the private markets. Today, we'll be sharing a fascinating conversation on autonomous finance from a recent webinar with Paul Condra, our head of emerging tech research and Robert Le, a senior emerging tech analyst who focuses on fintech and insurtech. Adam: Alec, would you believe it if I told you that you could purchase a robot to run your personal finances and wealth management? Alexander: Well, normally, Adam, the skeptic in me would say that that's probably just a little impossible-sounding. The Silicon Valley fintech mavens, you never know what they're going to come up with. The fact is that millions of dollars of venture capital are being bet on apps that can do all of those things and more.

Which robo advisor is best? This is a key question that investors must ponder as we begin 2020. The top robo advisors are beginning to assert themselves and disrupt the financial space. Fortunately, we've done the heavy lifting for you and compiled a list of robo advisors for the coming year. Each of these companies has established itself as a player in the growing robo advisor market, and Insider Intelligence predicts that robo-advisors will be managing $4.6 trillion by 2022.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed more than 1,300 points earlier this month in the most dramatic drop since February. If you are a client of Morgan Stanley MS Wealth Management, you may have received a message from your financial advisor. The purpose of the message would be to tell you exactly what happened in the market and what the firm's investment professionals are saying about it. It would also tell you your portfolio's current probability of success in light of recent events. The email would come from your financial advisor.

Innovation is good; financial innovation is bad. It gave us the global financial crisis, after all, along with multibillion-dollar bailouts for entities such as AIG Financial Products, which almost nobody had heard of before they suddenly turned out to pose a mortal threat to the entire economy. That said, there are two financial innovations that are generally considered to have been clearly positive for society. One is the ATM, for reasons which should be self-explanatory. The other is passive investing.

When artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on jobs and the economy comes up, the conversation centers on blue collar jobs. Per The State of Automation Report, there are 4.6M such jobs at risk in the USA due to AI. But, the jobs of MBAs and their white-collar brethren will also be impacted dramatically by AI. A growing wave of AI-infused Expert Automation & Augmentation Software (EAAS, pronounced /ēz/) platforms will usher in a new era of AI-assisted or AI-enhanced productivity. This AI-enhanced productivity is threatening jobs at the lower end of the white-collar spectrum as evidenced by these recent headlines. But to start, Expert Automation & Augmentation Software will be more focused on augmentation, i.e., helping humans do countless complex tasks that are either beyond human cognition and/or inefficient for human beings to do (read thousands of pages of patents and understand key topics). Think of these AI-enhanced assistants as junior analysts (lawyers, journalists, etc) who never tire and who can process information beyond human capacity but who will still need the steady eye of a manager to make subjective judgments.

It's been a decade since the launch of the industry's leading independent digital advice platforms -- Betterment, Wealthfront and Personal Capital. The question that now remains for all three: who will cross the IPO finish line first? The companies continue to churn the possibility of going public, while raising millions in additional funding. But there are doubts around the market viability of automated advice's aging upstarts. In terms of assets, the trio has kept their positions in the market respectively, with Betterment leading all independents with over $10 billion in AUM, followed by Wealthfront's $7.4 billion and Personal Capital's $4.9 billion.

As the world waits for self-driving vehicles to hit the market, automakers and insurance companies continue to debate the topic of liability. If an autonomous car hits another vehicle, is the driver responsible or the car? Tesla surprised experts recently by stating that drivers should keep both hands on the wheel at all times in its self-driving cars, which goes against the thinking that these cars will free drivers from responsibility. Volvo, on the other hand, has a different view of the liability manufacturers face for their automobiles. In late 2015, the company admitted it will take the blame when drivers get into an accident in one of their self-driving vehicles.

If you're thinking about taking out a loan, you could soon be turning to robots rather than traditional bankers. Wealthfront has introduced money-lending'robo-advisers' that allow clients to take out huge amounts of money through their smartphone. The service is currently limited to clients with at least $100,000 (£78,000), but the software could soon be replicated by other lenders. Wealthfront has introduced money-lending'robo-advisers' that allow clients to take out huge amounts of money through their smartphone. The system establishes a line of credit of up to 30 per cent of your account value for Wealthfront clients with at least $100,000 (£78,000) invested in an individual or joint investment account.