Key Takeaways
- Edward Jones, a U.S.-based financial services firm, has successfully leveraged generative AI (GenAI) to modernize its critical systems, improve productivity, and reduce the risks inherent in legacy infrastructure.
- The company has seen significant benefits from using GenAI, including a 20% increase in engineering efficiency, 98% code completeness, and 99% fidelity in modernized systems.
- Edward Jones has also invested in a real-time AI strategy, known as "advisor intelligence," to provide its advisors with timely and relevant insights during client conversations.
- The company has built AI-powered systems to surface the right insights at the right time, in the appropriate context, directly within advisor workflows.
- Research has shown that wealth management firms using AI to support advisors have seen measurable improvements in efficiency, client engagement, and decision-making.
Introduction to Edward Jones
Edward Jones is a U.S.-based financial services firm that has been serving individual investors and small businesses for many years. The company has reported significant revenue and net income in recent years, with $16 billion in revenue and $1.98 billion in net income in 2024. Edward Jones has more than 20,000 financial advisors throughout North America, serving over 9 million clients with a total of $2.2 trillion in client assets under care.
Scaling Modernization Efforts with GenAI
Maintaining legacy systems remains a significant challenge for large organizations, including Edward Jones. According to Kevin Adams, the company’s chief information officer and head of digital, "Maintaining and evolving legacy mainframe systems that had long served as the backbone of data processing, amid declining specialized expertise," was a major challenge. To address this challenge, Edward Jones partnered with EPAM Systems to integrate GenAI into its software engineering workflows. As Adams noted, "We use GenAI to support our engineering teams by automating several time-consuming software development tasks, including code migration, refactoring, unit test generation, and documentation." The company has seen significant benefits from using GenAI, including a 20% increase in engineering efficiency, 98% code completeness, and 99% fidelity in modernized systems.
Delivering Real-Time Advisor Intelligence
Data silos impose severe limits on decision-making by fragmenting client, market, and operational insights, preventing real-time integration essential for advisors during conversations. Edward Jones identified a growing gap between the volume of data it possessed and the real-time insights its advisors could access during client conversations. To address this challenge, the company invested in a real-time AI strategy focused on "advisor intelligence." As Lindsey Turner, Principal in Data Science, Analytics, and BI at Edward Jones, noted, "We needed to provide our advisors with timely and relevant insights during client conversations, not after." The company built AI-powered systems to surface the right insights at the right time, in the appropriate context, directly within advisor workflows.
Benefits of Real-Time Advisor Intelligence
The benefits of real-time advisor intelligence are significant. According to research from the MIT Sloan Management Review, wealth management firms using AI to support advisors have seen measurable improvements in efficiency, client engagement, and decision-making. Real-time AI can help organizations streamline workflows, provide timely insights, and drive actionable outcomes across complex enterprise systems. As Peter Hegyi, Director of Financial Services at Mulesoft, noted, "Edward Jones’ advisor intelligence strategy was enabled by MuleSoft’s ability to connect data across more than 900 applications." The company’s ability to connect data across multiple systems has enabled it to provide its advisors with the insights they need to make informed decisions.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Edward Jones has successfully leveraged GenAI to modernize its critical systems, improve productivity, and reduce the risks inherent in legacy infrastructure. The company has also invested in a real-time AI strategy, known as "advisor intelligence," to provide its advisors with timely and relevant insights during client conversations. The benefits of real-time advisor intelligence are significant, and research has shown that wealth management firms using AI to support advisors have seen measurable improvements in efficiency, client engagement, and decision-making. As Kevin Adams noted, "We are committed to continuing to invest in AI and other technologies to support our advisors and improve our client experience." With its focus on innovation and customer satisfaction, Edward Jones is well-positioned to remain a leader in the financial services industry.