Jump builds account opening and Zocks develops client queries.
AUG 20, 2026
By Michael Kitces and Ben Henry-Moreland
Because “disruption” in AdvisorTech is rare (due to <a href="https://www.kitces.com/kitces-report-independent-financial-advisor-technology-fintech-software-tools-research/” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>the slow pace at which advisors change their technology at all!), it’s notable when newcomers really do experience rapid growth and adoption. For which AI notetakers is arguably the fastest-growing new AdvisorTech category ever, with providers like Jump and Zocks reaching upwards of 40,000 advisor users in barely two years. In part because they lived at the nexus of a significant need and opportunity (when advisors already spend nearly 1 hour of prep and follow-up time for every 1 hour of client meetings, there is a lot of time saving potential on the table!), and didn’t have to displace existing tools because they represented an entirely new set of capabilities that simply didn’t exist until Large Language Models (LLMs) came forth to make it possible.
The rapid growth of the category creates a huge slew of imitators, in part because the approach of AI notetaking became so popular, across so many verticals, that platforms like Recall.ai were built to easily plug into the common meetings platforms, and further expedited the launch of new industry-specific versions of notetakers. At that point, the differentiator wasn’t simply whether an AI notetaker could be engineered; it was the use cases specific to that vertical, its regulatory/compliance needs, and industry-specific integrations, that began to distinguish the leaders from the rest.
In the context of AI notetakers for financial advisors, this meant deep integrations to CRM systems, as in the advisor context CRMs are both the system of record (for recording documentation for compliance purposes), the task management system (where workflows occur), and the source of truth for intelligence about the client relationship (from capturing meeting notes for future reference, to prepping on client information for the next meeting). The more tightly integrated the two were (notetaker and CRM to record those notes), the more appealing the industry-specific provider was over a ‘generic’ competitor, and the less the risk of being displaced.
Except the other challenge with the rise of solutions like Recall.ai facilitating the easy stand-up of AI notetaking capabilities is that CRM systems themselves could also quickly build their own versions, leading to rollouts from platforms like Wealthbox, and Advyzon, and PractiFi (and more recently Salesforce), and the rise of new “AI-Native CRM” providers like Slant. Which started to raise questions of how the AI Notetakers would avoid the CRM providers (re-)capturing adoption over time with an on-platform solution, and whether they would eventually have to become CRM systems to prevent being displaced by them.
In this vein, it’s notable that this month several of the leading AI notetakers announced new expanded capabilities that are going beyond their original “notetaking” feature set, from Jump building out account opening and onboarding capabilities (allowing new client onboarding to begin directly from the new-client meeting that Jump already captured), and Zocks launching Client Queries that help financial advisors scan their existing book of clients for new opportunities or places to focus (e.g., “which of my clients have at least $500,000 of held-away assets and are due for a review this quarter” or “which clients have had a significant age milestone in the past few months but haven’t been contacted recently”).
As standalone features, both developments make sense unto themselves, as each represents capabilities adjacent to what the notetakers already do… Jump already captures client meetings from which new accounts may be initiated so better queuing up those workflows makes sense, and Zocks is already capturing rich data on clients for which a deeper ability to query to find opportunities also makes sense. For advisors already deep in the respective platforms, the capabilities are another touchpoint to expand what happens within the AI notetaking tools they’re already doing.
Yet at the same time, it’s notable that “looking up information about clients to take action upon” (akin to Zocks’ Client Queries) is a long-standing CRM function, as are the “manage the new account-opening workflows” that Jump is now building. And developing these features requires a further deepening of the underlying capabilities – the breadth to which the tool can serve as (or access other) source(s) of truth on client data, and initiate and execute workflows. Which implies that the platforms are building the underlying components to be CRM systems in the future – potentially inching ever closer towards their own CRM offerings? – even if thus far they’re only offering narrower features to solve for immediately-adjacent needs.
Ultimately, though, the reality is that advisors will still only want to drive the actual CRM functions from a single place; the more that AI notetakers replicate components of what CRMs typically do as a system of record and a system of action, the more conflict advisors themselves will feel about “which software do I log into for which function”, creating the proverbial “swivel chair of software” that has already created growing angst amongst advisors in recent years. Which means in the long run, AI notetakers still can’t ‘just’ solve for an expanding series of use cases and workflows adjacent to notetaking… the further they tread into the territory of what historically has been done within CRM, the more they will risk being displaced as the ‘redundant overlap’ by the CRM providers build their own AI notetaking and workflow capabilities from the other direction… or be compelled to truly become competing CRM systems themselves?
This article first appeared on the Nerd’s Eye View at Kitces.com at https://kitc.es/advisortech-july2026, and has been reprinted here with permission.
Ben Henry-Moreland is a Senior Financial Planning Nerd at Kitces.com, where he specializes in writing and speaking on financial planning topics including tax, practice management, and technology. He also co-authors the monthly Kitces #AdvisorTech column. Drawing from his experience as a financial planner and a solo advisory firm owner, Ben is passionate about fulfilling the site’s mission of making financial advicers better and more successful.
Michael Kitces is Head of Planning Strategy at Focus Partners Wealth, which provides an evidence-based approach to private wealth management for near- and current retirees, and Focus Partners Advisor Solutions, a turnkey wealth management services provider supporting thousands of independent financial advisors through the scaling phase of growth.
In addition, he is a co-founder of the XY Planning Network, AdvicePay, fpPathfinder, and New Planner Recruiting, the former Practitioner Editor of the Journal of Financial Planning, the host of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, and the publisher of the popular financial planning industry blog Nerd’s Eye View through his website Kitces.com, dedicated to advancing knowledge in financial planning. In 2010, Michael was recognized with one of the FPA’s “Heart of Financial Planning” awards for his dedication and work in advancing the profession.
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