While downing increasingly spicier wings, Michael Kitces and Jason Pereira questioned the assumptions that AI’s efficiency promises would balloon the number of advised clients.
June 10, 2026
It was a morning packed with spicy wings and spicier takes from Woodgate Financial Senior Partner and Financial Planner Jason Pereira and Michael Kitces, chief financial planning Nerd at Kitces.com, at the Wealth Management EDGE conference at The Boca Raton resort in Boca Raton, Fla.
It was the second bite of the wing for Pereira and Kitces in a morning session modeled after the famous television show “Hot Ones,” in which host Sean Evans interviews celebrities as they down increasingly spicy hot wings.
Kitces and Periera previously tested their luck (and their taste buds) during the first Hot Takes session at Wealth Management EDGE in 2024, and this time didn’t disappoint. Downing milk between wings, Kitces and Periera dished on some of the industry’s hottest topics, including artificial intelligence, organic growth and tech vendor consolidation.
According to Kitces, the industry’s “focused obsession” on how AI can improve efficiency and support scale is “fundamentally wrong,” and will play out differently than advisors expect.
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When new tech promises more speed, Kitces believed employees often opt to “go deeper” because they have more time to do so. It could lead to a situation in which the bevy of information and options AI provides will elongate client meetings and prep time, rather than reducing tasks.
Instead of unbridled scale, Kitces felt AI’s greatest promise lay in the quality of advice, believing clients would get better financial planning, investment analyses, relationships and outcomes.
“So, I don’t think this is a net bad at all for the industry,” he said. “But what if the future is not that we have 40% more client loads? What if the future is that we have the exact same client loads and the advice is 40% better?”
As the duo dug into their second wing (doused with “Hot Bergine” sauce), Periera agreed, recalling a meeting with an AI company pitching products in which he asked what problem they were seeking to accomplish for advisors.
“And they basically said, ‘I’m trying to get some advisees to serve 1,000 or 2,000 clients.’ I said, ‘respectfully, you just described my nightmare,’” Periera said. “Either I want to provide so little value to 2,000 people that I am a commodity that’s easily replaceable, or I have completely burnt myself out. Because how do you fit that? The math doesn’t work.”
Kitces and Pereira moved on to wings doused in the ominously-named “Pickliz n’ Scorpion” and “Tropical Amarillo,” while discussing the “slightly comical number of logos” populating the Kitces Financial Advisor FinTech Solutions Map, which aims to capture the landscape of tech vendors for advisors.
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Though many expect a consolidation in the space, Kitces thought otherwise, speculating that the approximately 500 tech vendors on the map today could grow to over 750 within five years. Vibe coding and Claude Code have made it easier and faster to ship code, and fintech providers could conceivably get a “legitimately viable retail product” to market in several months.
“When the barriers to entry get lower, more people make things,” he said. “That’s the reality.”
According to Kitces, most of the map submissions aren’t particularly growing or scaling, “and they’re not particularly trying to.” Typically, these businesses are created by advisors who find a solution to a problem in their firm and are ready to sell to other advisors to recoup their costs.
These companies aren’t feeling the growth pressure inherent in a venture capital-funded enterprise, and therefore, there’s less pressure to sell, exit or consolidate.
“I think that’s why you’re going to see more and more companies, and the challenge for the advisor is, unfortunately, if you think you’re swamped with the number of solutions to choose from now, it’s going to get worse,” Kitces said.
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However, amid an explosion of vibecoding, Pereira cautioned advisors creating point solutions for themselves that their tech solutions aren’t inherently scalable. Creating a product ready for the market is an entirely different ballgame, he warned.
“It’s not just a complicated spreadsheet. It is infinitely more than that,” he said. “And if you’ve ever been along for the ride on these in terms of the building of them, you would appreciate just how much work goes into everything.”
Jun 9, 2026 TO Jun 11, 2026
Boca Raton
A must-attend event for advisors focused on tech, investments, and strategies to drive growth. Use code WM20EDGE for 20% off.
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Patrick Donachie
Senior Reporter, Wealth Management
Patrick Donachie is a senior reporter for Wealth Management, covering federal and state regulation, litigation and M&A deals in financial services. Patrick was born in Staten Island, and now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
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