Inside WealthTech — from the technology powering the advisor’s stack to the WealthTech companies defining the industry, we deliver the stories and strategies behind smarter advice. Each episode features candid conversations with industry leaders about the technologies, ideas, and partnerships transforming the way advisors serve clients, grow their practices, and redefine financial outcomes.
In this episode, Envestnet’s Molly Weiss, Group President, Wealth Management Platform, and Blake Wood, Head of Platform Strategy, sit down with Ian Karnell, CEO and Founder of VastAssembly.ai and VastAdvisor.ai. The insightful discussion, filmed live at Future Proof 2025, explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping advisor capacity, client engagement, and organic growth, and why the next competitive advantage in WealthTech won’t come from headcount, but from intelligent automation.
Keep reading for a recap of the conversation, or watch it in full, here.
Increase client capacity with intelligent automation
“The biggest trend we see is intelligent automation in the front, mid, and back office. And it’s having a fundamental impact on capacity.”
Karnell says the real impact of AI and automation lies in how it decouples a firm’s growth potential from its human headcount—“disconnecting,” as he puts it, “a firm’s ability to take on more AUM from human capacity.”
In other words, AI is making it possible for advisory firms to scale assets under management without scaling staff at the same rate. And that’s no small evolution.
For decades, advisor growth was limited by the number of people a firm could hire. Now, Karnell argues, AI is breaking that link.
By automating mid- and back-office workflows, firms can handle greater inflows of assets under management without proportional increases in staff. That efficiency is paving the way for a front-office revolution.
As automation scales routine operations, RIAs can refocus their energy on what truly drives value—organic growth.
“We’re trying to help firms drive accelerated organic growth,” Karnell explains. “They can target a larger marketplace and do it programmatically.”
Empower advisors with powerful marketing and acquisition tools
“I want to democratize the platforms that lead brokers use today to drive leads into advisors’ pipelines. But I want to remove 90 percent of the cost.”
Karnell isn’t exaggerating when he calls it an “$8 billion problem.” That figure represents the amount advisors in the United States collectively spend each year to drive organic growth through referral programs or premium-priced lead vendors.
VastAssembly was founded to help advisors reclaim those costs by taking a more direct, data-driven approach to business development. Rather than depending on third-party brokers or marketplaces, Karnell’s goal is to equip RIAs with the same level of sophistication those vendors enjoy, putting powerful marketing and acquisition tools directly into advisors’ hands.
“I’m attacking that marketplace,” he explains, and he’s doing it by building technology that puts advisors back in control of how they grow.
By combining proprietary automation with AI-powered lead intelligence, VastAssembly and its sister platform, VastAdvisor, help RIAs identify, qualify, and engage prospective clients with precision and scale. The result is a more efficient model for growth that lowers acquisition costs, improves profitability, and expands access to new markets.
For independent advisors, that shift means more than operational savings. It represents a structural change in how firms compete, allowing them to reinvest resources in deeper client relationships and long-term growth.
The new advisor advantage: AI-powered marketing automation
“There’s $7 trillion of assets that haven’t really been programmatically competed for in this marketplace… AI opens that up.”
For Karnell, this is the real frontier of WealthTech: not just efficiency, but access. Artificial intelligence, he says, is removing structural limits on who advisors can serve and how fast they can grow.
Most RIAs still compete for a relatively small segment of high-net-worth investors, leaving trillions in potential assets untouched in the mass-affluent market. AI, Karnell argues, can help firms bridge that gap by lowering acquisition costs and scaling their reach.
“If RIAs are spending $8 billion a year to drive organic growth and there’s a massive opportunity to take out 90 percent of that cost, that will do a lot to drive profitability,” he says.
“That profitability can be reinvested back into their ability to compete for a much larger market share.”
The opportunity is twofold: greater efficiency for firms and greater access for investors. As AI reshapes prospecting, targeting, and personalization, it’s redefining what growth looks like—creating an ecosystem where more clients can benefit from professional advice, and more advisors can compete on value, not volume.
Tailored outreach builds trust with new audiences
"The next generation of investors is very tech-savvy, very data-aware. They’re leveraging social media channels and digital channels as a way to get investment ideas and evaluate who they want their advisor to be.”
When it comes to AI communication, Karnell believes authenticity is everything.
As new generations of investors emerge, the traditional referral-driven model of advisor growth is breaking down. These investors aren’t asking their peers for recommendations, they’re evaluating advisors online, in real time, based on digital interactions and perceived credibility.
“It’s very different than their parents’ generation,” Karnell says. “We know they don’t value referrals as much as their parents did.”
That shift, he explains, is exactly where AI can make the difference. VastAdvisor’s approach to natural language processing enables automated systems to recognize humor, emotion, and tone, helping advisors communicate in ways that feel more human and trustworthy.
“Trust is a function of how well you can communicate,” Karnell explains. “And AI is doing a lot to solve for that.”
By tailoring outreach to the way modern investors actually evaluate advisors, natural-language automation turns digital touchpoints into moments of credibility and connection—making trust both scalable and measurable.
Integrated AI tools for data-driven growth
“It’s about figuring out ways of accelerating AUM inflows through new digital channels.”
For Karnell, collaboration sits at the heart of WealthTech’s next phase. VastAssembly’s growing network of partnerships shows how AI can unite asset managers, platforms, and advisors around a shared goal: driving smarter, more scalable growth.
“We’ve had very productive conversations with Envestnet,” he says.
“We’re excited about ways that we can leverage your entire data solutions platform as a way to inform audience building on a platform like VastAdvisor, so that we can drive active digital activation in ways that have never been done before at the asset-manager level and all the way down to the RIA level.”
That same model extends to firms like BlackRock and SEI, where VastAssembly is working to apply AI tools that enhance asset growth and modernize advisor engagement.
“They’re looking at how to leverage tools like VastAdvisor to drive not only their own organic growth, but distribute that out through their practice management teams to their large networks,” Karnell explains.
Together, these collaborations are helping build an AI-powered ecosystem—one where data, distribution, and innovation flow more freely, expanding what’s possible for firms across the industry.
Industry innovation and the pace of change
“You have to have your paddle in the water every day.”
Asked which other WealthTech companies he finds most exciting, Karnell points to Catchlight, a Fidelity-backed firm specializing in AI-powered lead scoring and intelligence.
“They’re doing some really innovative things on the organic-growth side,” he says, describing how Catchlight’s capabilities could complement VastAdvisor through future integrations.
For Karnell, that spirit of innovation reflects a deeper truth about the pace of change in the industry: staying still is not an option.
“Tomorrow’s going to be vastly different from today,” he says. “We have to think AI-first, be AI-native, and commit to understanding how these innovations will impact our markets.”
That mindset extends beyond product development. As AI evolves, Karnell believes firms that continuously learn, test, and adapt will shape the next generation of advisor technology, and transform what’s possible for clients, advisors, and the WealthTech ecosystem as a whole.
Rapid-fire reflections
As part of Inside WealthTech’s signature speed-round, Karnell also offers his quick takes on the trends shaping the future of advice and investing:
- Crypto in portfolios: Here to stay.
- Royalty income: “They’re all niche,” Karnell says. “The tokenization of real-world assets is going to open a number of different opportunities for wealth to really expand and play in different asset types than we’ve ever had in the past.”
- Alternative investments: “Alts are huge,” he says. “Alts are huge.”
- Finfluencers: “It presents new opportunities for wealth advisors,” Karnell explains. “You have to look at who their audience is—it’s the next generation of investors. Follow the money. Where they’re getting their investment ideas, how they’re exploring who their next financial advisor is going to be, is through those finfluencers.”
- If you could change one thing about old-school wealth management: Steak dinners.
In addition to his industry insights, Karnell also shared what’s on his current learning list. He regularly listens to The AI Breakdown and other technology podcasts to stay on top of rapid innovation.
Stay Inside WealthTech
Watch the full episode here of Inside WealthTech with Ian Karnell to learn more about how VastAssembly and VastAdvisor are using AI to transform advisor growth.
And make sure you follow Envestnet for upcoming episodes featuring leaders redefining wealth management through technology, data, and collaboration.
Learn more about Envestnet’s wealth management technology platform and approach to AI automation.
