BY KEVIN DRAEGER

OVERWHELMED BY THE POSSIBILITIES? FOLLOW THIS PRACTICAL 3-STEP PLAN FOR INTEGRATING TIME-SAVING, BUSINESS-BUILDING TOOLS

Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t a trend you watch—it’s a tool you use. Whether you’re an advisor, an agent or a practice leader working directly with clients, you can’t afford to ignore the benefits of this developing technology. It’s time to move from dabbling to experiencing durable, day-to-day results. Clients expect timely, plain English communication; carriers are embedding AI in their tools; and your competitors are already using it to shave minutes from routine work that add up to hours.

AI accelerates what you already do—so you can spend more time advising.

Whether it’s summarizing notes, drafting follow-ups or prepping for calls, AI accelerates what you already do—so you can spend more time advising and less time administrating.

However, with so many possibilities and only so much time it’s easy to be overwhelmed. So, I want to provide you with a clear, usable three stage road map that acknowledges your real practice constraints: tight schedules, compliance boundaries and the need to show quick wins.

The goal: save an hour this week, two next week and let those gains compound—without waiting for an enterprise program.

PHASE 1 (Days 1-7): Awareness

It all starts with learning to build skill with purpose. The goal is to learn how to delegate to AI and judge its output—without using sensitive data.

• Actions (15–30 minutes): Pick one compliance-approved AI assistant (Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.).
• Run three fast drills tackling outreach, education and meeting prep.
• Edit the outputs to sound like you; save the good versions as templates for future use.

Prompts to try:

• Email intro:  Write a warm, confident email introducing me as a financial advisor to a new client. 120–150 words.  Include one clear call to action to book a 20-minute call. Avoid jargon.
• Client education:  Explain indexed universal life insurance in plain language (grade 8–9). Limit to 180 words with 3 benefits and 2 trade-offs.
• Meeting prep:  I’m meeting a dual-income couple in their 40s exploring retirement and college funding.  Draft 7 discovery questions that uncover goals, risk tolerance and time horizon.Remember, every AI output isa first draft. Edit for voice, accuracy and compliance

PHASE 2 (Weeks 2-4):  Adoption

Once you’ve begun to see the benefits of AI, it’s important to wire its use into your daily flow. The goal is to move from experiments to repeatable workflows that save time every week.

Pick one or two low-risk, high-impact use cases and run them for two weeks. For example:

• Client Follow-Ups:  After your meeting, remove any sensitive or personal information, paste your meeting notes and use this prompt:Summarize these notes, outline next steps and draft a professional follow-up email (120–160 words) with a clear client action and deadline.

Always review for tone, accuracy and compliance before sending.

• Meeting Prep Pack:  For an upcoming meeting, try this prompt:I’m meeting a small business owner exploring term life and a SEP IRA. Create: (a) 5 discovery questions, (b) a 90-second plain-English explanation of each product, and (c) 3 likely objections with concise responses.
• Internal Education Aid:  Use AI to create quick reference material for your own learning or team training with this prompt:  Create a concise summary of fixed annuities for internal reference. Include 3 key features, 2 considerations and a plain-English definition. This is for internal use only—not for client distribution unless compliance-approved.
• Prep Post-Call Debrief:  First, anonymize the transcript (remove names, account details and any personally identifiable information, or PII). Then use this prompt:  Analyze this conversation. List objections, missed opportunities and potential compliance concerns. Suggest 3 improvements for next time.

Take a moment to prove the value of all this. Time one task before AI, then with AI for a week. Multiply the difference by frequency (see sidebar page 86). That’s your weekly time savings—share it with your team.

THE ROI OF AI

Small wins compound; consider how these time savings add up:

• Follow-ups: Save 6 minutes× 20/week = 2 hours.
• Meeting prep: Save 10 minutes× 8 meetings = 80 minutes.
• Education one-pagers: Save 15 minutes × 4 = 60 minutes.

Total: 4-plus hours/week. Over 48 weeks, that’s 192 hours—about 24 eight-hour days you can reallocate to reviews, prospecting or planning.

PHASE 3 (Month 2 and On):  Acceleration

Now is the time to start scaling your AI skills. The goal is to multiply impact across your practice with light training and shared templates. Here are some prompts to help you do that:

• Role-playing with AI:  Play a skeptical client considering whole life. Raise realistic objections about cost and flexibility. After each of my responses, rate clarity (1–5) and suggest a stronger reply.
• Sharpening your pitch:  Here’s my current annuity explanation: [paste]. Improve clarity (grade 8), tighten to 120 seconds spoken and keep it compliant.
• Creating internal tools:  Build a 6-question quiz on annuity basics for new advisors. Provide answers with one-sentence explanations.

As part of building scale, it’s important to ensure you are helping your team grow in their AI use too. You can do that by:

• Sharing your top 2–3 prompts in a one-pager.
• Hosting a 20-minute lunch-and-learn: demo your workflow, show the minutes you’ve saved and handout the one-pager.
• Nominating one workflow for the team to standardize for the next 30 days.

AI SAFEGUARDS—PROTECTING CLIENT DATA

Before plugging AI into daily work, it’s vital to lock in some basic safeguards:

• Choose the right version.Use a business-grade/enterprise edition for internal or client information. These versions typically offer data isolation (your prompts aren’t used to train public models), admin controls, audit logs and compliance features aligned to firm policy.
• Minimize sensitive inputs.Avoid PII, account numbers, medical details or full financials. Redact or generalize (e.g., “Client A, age47, owns a small business”).
• Treat outputs as drafts.You’re responsible for accuracy, suitability and regulatory alignment. Scrub for inappropriate guarantees, performance claims or product language that could be noncompliant.
• Store results securely.  Move finalized content into approved systems (CRM, document management) and follow retention rules.
• Ask before you automate.If you’re unsure whether a use case is allowed (e.g.,client-facing chat, call analysis), check with compliance/IT. Many firms already have guidelines—use them.  Bottom line: AI is safe and valuable when you select the right version, limit sensitive data and keep human oversight. Start with low-risk tasks (drafting, summarizing).

AI won’t replace your expertise; it will amplify it.

Getting started: A 30-day plan

Let’s break all this down into some easily actionable steps:

Week 1: Pick an AI assistant. Run the threePhase-1 drills.

Week 2: Standardize one workflow (e.g., follow-ups). Track the minutes you’ve saved.

Week 3: Add one more workflow (e.g., meeting prep).

Week 4: Host a 20-minute show-and-tell. Share your top three prompts with your team.

At the end of the month, take a few moments to gauge how far you have come with this quick self-assessment.  Score yourself between 1 (low) and 5 (high) as you answer:

• I can get a solid first draft from AI in 1–2 prompts.
• I use AI for at least one client workflow weekly.
• I track time saved (even rough estimates).
• I maintain a small library of prompts/templates.
• I’ve shared at least one prompt or templates with my team.

(Results: 20–25: You’re accelerating. Well done.12–19: You’re adopting. Keep it up. ≤11:You’re at least aware. Now it’s time to start exploring the benefits of AI more seriously.)

A final thought: AI won’t replace your expertise; it will amplify it. Start where you are, prove AI’s value in hours—not months—and let those wins compound. So let’s get really practical: take 15 minutes and do this today. Using AI prompts:

• Draft a follow-up email from your client meeting notes.
• Prep 5 discovery questions for your next meeting.
• Create an internal refresher on a product you explain often. (Be sure not to include any PII or confidential details unless you’re in an approved enterprise version—and even then, keep it minimal).  Having learned how to use a prompt, teach it to someone tomorrow. That’s how practices change.

KEVIN DRAEGER is a seasoned leader in insurance and financial services with 20 years’ experience. He holds CFP, CLU, ChFC, RICP, CLF and CASL designations and is recognized for top producer honors.The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of any broker-dealer or financial institution.