Raymond James Financial this week joined a growing number of companies across industries, including financial services firms, to add a chief artificial intelligence officer to its C-suite.
The firm promoted Stuart Feld to the newly created post. Going forward, he will serve as the firm’s principal AI architect and oversee the technology’s development and deployment for advisor—and client-related purposes.
Feld joins Swatee Singh of TIAA, Andrew Chin of AllianceBernstein, and Anderson Monken of the Federal Reserve Board, among others, in having the title.
Feld, an industry veteran, has been with Raymond James for almost seven years and has served in technology leadership roles at Prudential, UBS Wealth Management Americas and JP Morgan Chase.
In the statement announcing the promotion, CEO Paul Shoukry said the new technology would focus on several key areas, including improvement in servicing (both internally and for clients), automating advisory tasks and generating and applying data-based insights and analytics to personalize client advice.
Use of AI is not new at Raymond James, with the firm having employed machine learning in the areas of electronic communications review and compliance, cybersecurity and operations monitoring for several years.
For example, the firm rolled out its Opportunities application in late 2022, which uses machine learning and analytics to help advisors identify next best actions for clients.
“Our philosophy is to augment, not replace, the human touch by reducing administrative workload and empowering associates and advisors to better serve their clients,” Feld said in a statement, which also noted all the firm’s tools are developed in collaboration with the company’s Technology Advisory Council and only with practical, real-world business applications in mind.
Overall, numbers for chief AI officers are hard to come by. In its late 2023 AI Priorities Study, Foundry, a part of publisher IDG, found that 11% of midsize to large organizations already had a CAIO, while another 21% were actively seeking one. The study surveyed 965 IT decision-makers from around the world (half from North America).
A June 2024 poll of 1,808 executive leaders by research firm Gartner found that while a little more than half of their organizations had a leader whose role included leading AI efforts, only 12% said those leaders had the title of CAIO.