PIMFA WealthTech, the innovation arm of the Personal Investment Management & Financial Advice Association (PIMFA), has partnered with Morningstar to launch a new AI-focused Tech Sprint, aimed at solving key operational challenges in the wealth management sector.

The competition offers FinTech firms the opportunity to present their AI solutions at the Morningstar Investment Conference UK, taking place on 7 May 2025.

As generative artificial intelligence continues to reshape the financial landscape, wealth and financial advice firms face growing pressure to integrate AI effectively. Yet challenges remain around access to high-quality data, rigorous evaluation frameworks, and seamless integration with existing systems. The Tech Sprint has been designed to address these barriers while accelerating innovation in the sector.

This year’s sprint poses a central question to participating FinTechs: how can AI be used to enhance operational efficiency by streamlining processes across front, middle, and back-office functions in wealth and financial advice firms?

Participants are encouraged to explore several high-impact use cases. These include AI-powered onboarding and KYC checks that automate identity verification and fraud detection, improved compliance through automated suitability reviews, hyper-personalised client reporting, and even the automation of entire software development cycles.

To support their development, FinTechs taking part will receive access to Morningstar’s Intelligence Engine. This advanced platform enables the end-to-end development of generative AI applications, offering a robust suite of evaluation metrics, integration tools, and direct access to Morningstar’s vast data sets. External data sources can also be added through API and direct storage connections.

PIMFA WealthTech outgoing chair and Evelyn Partners group chief operations officer Mayank Prakash said, “PIMFA WealthTech was created to be at the forefront of innovative thinking around tech solutions that can open up substantial opportunity for our industry. As Chair of the advisory council, I can think of no better example of this than the Tech Sprint we are launching today on AI.

“AI is undoubtably not only a major change moment in the wealth and advice space, but globally as well, impacting all of our lives. This sprint will give fintechs the opportunity to leverage Morningstar’s specialist data and analytics to delve into use cases, exploring opportunities for innovation that could bring meaningful improvements to the client journey by increasing adviser productivity and reducing end-to-end costs. I greatly look forward to seeing the entries to this Tech Sprint and sharing these fascinating insights with the wider community”.