Could the use of chatbots powered by artificial intelligence (AI) replace advisors who are unable to elevate their practice above this new competition? This premise fueled the discussions during the session "ChatGPT already advises your clients. How can you win them back?"
The session was part of the program at the Congrès de l’assurance de personnes (Life Insurance Conference), an event organized by the Insurance Journal Publishing Group (IJPG) held on November 18, 2025, in Montreal. Session moderator and IJPG 's Director of Digital Growth, Philippe Le Roux, set the stage by presenting this statistic: 23% of Quebecers used AI to learn about managing their personal finances in the past 12 months.
This is the key finding of a survey commissioned from Léger by Quebec regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). According to the report published by the AMF on October 10, 2025, 17% of Quebecers consulted a chat assistant such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, Microsoft's Copilot, or Google's Gemini. Nine percent used an AI-generated preview in a search engine.
Surprising…
“Does this result surprise you?” Le Roux asked the panellists at the event. “No,” immediately replied Bruno Leduc, Assistant Vice-President, Advisors and Wealth, at Equisoft. He noted that within his network, one in four people has received advice from AI regarding personal finances. Leduc says he believes their interest is a good thing.
The survey results also didn’t surprise Maxime Gauthier, Managing Director, Chief Compliance Officer, and Mutual Fund Representative at Mérici Financial Services. However, they do concern him. “Many issues will be raised by our clients’ use of chatbots,” he said. He points, among other things, to the security of clients’ personal data.
Gauthier also wonders what this new competition means for advisors, who will have to demonstrate the added value of their services more than ever in the face of this new competition.
“I believe that, as an industry, we’re going to have to ask ourselves some questions because our clients will come in better informed, which is a very good thing,” he says. But “at times, they may also come in misinformed, and we’ll have to correct certain misconceptions — that will bring its own challenges,” Gauthier notes.
On the other hand, he points to potential competitive pressures for advisors “whose practices have not evolved sufficiently.” “At some point, some people may ask themselves, ‘Do I still need an advisor if I have ChatGPT?’ It will be up to us to demonstrate our relevance in that context,” he says.
… Or not?
Guillaume Delroeux, President and Leader in Customer Experience Practice at Prométhée Consultants, was also a panellist. Unlike the other two panellists, he said he was surprised to learn that “only” 23% of Quebecers surveyed by the AMF used AI to research their personal finances. “It could be significantly higher,” he said.
During discussions at the training sessions he leads, Delroeux says he has observed a “massive” increase in the use of AI for financial advice over the past three months.
“The reasons people are turning to AI are that it’s simple, accessible, and increasingly accurate and personalized,” he adds. “Working with an advisor is valuable, but sometimes people don’t fully understand what they’re being told. With ChatGPT, I generally understand what it’s saying, or I can adjust it so it speaks to me. That’s the feeling people have. In terms of the client experience, it’s exceptional.”
Equipping the advisor
Bruno Leduc, for his part, believes that advisors need to be equipped to remain relevant, especially when dealing with a client who has taken the time to consult AI before meeting with them.
Maxime Gauthier urges advisors to adapt to the fact that their clients are using AI and to raise their level of advice accordingly. “Advisors will need to adapt their knowledge, skills, practices, and tools,” he says. Gauthier also praises advisors’ interpersonal skills, which he considers their greatest asset in the face of AI.
Willie Savard, for his part, sees AI as an ally for advisors, allowing them “to spend more time with their clients.” Savard founded Tchat N Sign in 2020, a secure digital exchange platform between advisors and their clients. He is also a mutual fund representative and financial security advisor at his life insurance firm, Altura Financial Group.
To explain the difference between advisors who adhere to the status quo and those who embrace AI, he says the latter will seize the opportunity to fill the resource gap by using AI agents to help them become more efficient.
“What information do your clients most often ask about their files? In my case, 80% ask me who their insurance beneficiaries are, how much they pay per month, and what their coverage amount is,” says Willie Savard. “Imagine a direct connection to your client portal, and the answers to their questions come from AI?”
Danger: sensitive data!
Maxime Gauthier also encourages advisors to leverage their client relationships to urge caution when using AI to access financial information. “How can we best protect our clients’ data and educate them about the limitations and risks of querying ChatGPT for every little thing? It’s one thing for AI to know you like apple pie. It’s quite another for it to know your investment structure and account numbers.” Have this conversation with your clients, he says.
Also for security reasons, Willie Savard hesitates to use ChatGPT for his client files: “The more I learn about Bill 25 [Quebec’s Act to modernize legislative provisions as regards the protection of personal information], what it says about sensitive data, and what our code of ethics states, the more I see significant difficulties in using it,” explains Savard. “It’s very difficult to find uses that comply with the law,” he adds.
For its part, Quebec’s insurance self-regulatory organization, the Chambre de l’assurance is asking its members to take the necessary measures to prevent unauthorized access to their clients’ data. The protection of personal information is a particularly important compliance issue when using information technologies, the Chambre advised in 2020 in one of its InfoDeonto bulletins. The Chambre recommends prioritizing cloud-based solutions whose servers are located on Canadian soil and under Canadian control.
Users ready to hand over their data
Philippe Le Roux asks the panellists why a client would forgo the added value of AI, knowing that even when dealing with financial institutions they can have their personal data leaked due to a breach. He cited the example of Desjardins Group, whose security breach compromised the data of 2.9 million clients in 2019. In a 2020 investigation targeting Desjardins, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada concluded that the number of clients whose data had been compromised reached 9.7 million individuals, both in Canada and abroad. The federal agency's investigations scrutinized, among other things, the institutions' compliance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
Guillaume Delroeux agrees that "people are willing to put their data in these systems [ChatGPT and others]." According to him, they are willing to take the risk because they gain something: an improved experience when meeting with an advisor. He believes that clients often feel intimidated by the prospect of this meeting and fear they won't understand the advice the professional will give them. There must be a balance between absolute security and absolute ease of use, believes Gauthier, who emphasizes the closely regulated role of the advisor. “We are not the average citizen. We must be above the fray, at the cutting edge.” He argues that advisors cannot abdicate their responsibility to educate clients under the pretext that “it’s pointless since the client will inform themselves using AI anyway.”
A Spotify for financial services?
Is the widespread use of AI likely to lead to an Apple Music or Spotify for advice? The panellists do not dismiss this threat. They believe, however, that ChatGPT and others will continue to be used, but alongside industry solutions that will stand out for their depth.
Bruno Leduc demonstrated this with the example of the AI-powered telemedicine solution Dialogue and its acquirer, Sun Life. He believes that collaboration between industry partners will lead to more comprehensive solutions, and that chatbots like ChatGPT will remain a complementary tool. He points out that, unlike a chatbot, “doctors and nurses supervise what’s happening behind the scenes” of Dialogue.
Leduc explains that this partnership model guided Equisoft in its AI-based solutions. A provider of solutions for insurers and advisors, Equisoft launched an AI-powered data analytics platform on November 18, 2025, with its partner Databricks. It is designed to help insurers reduce the cost of their legacy life insurance policy administration systems.
