Tech roundup: Less office politics, more collaboration

Almost every firm is looking to improve efficiency by reducing advisors’ administrative task load in straightforward processes like notetaking, onboarding and compliance documentation. But little has been said about how AI can connect colleagues and enhance their brainstorming process.

When colleagues gather to hammer out ideas, the best solution may come from the person who doesn’t often get heard, said Jad Chehlawi, founder and CEO of AI brainstorming software MetabolIQ in Toronto. Instead, people might agree to a mediocre idea for the wrong reasons.

“If you put everyone in a room, the most influential person, most charismatic person, or the person paying the salaries may win,” Chehlawi said. “When you allow people to think independently about a problem and aggregate ideas collectively, that’s where peer pressure disappears.”

MetabolIQ, a Canadian company launched in February, designed an AI-assisted process to bring the entire team together to brainstorm.

An executive tells the AI about their idea, it asks questions to stress test the idea, and then the AI builds a mind map that the executive can refine and polish their thoughts. The mind map has a core idea in the centre and deeper thoughts branching out of it.

Once the executive knows what problem they’re solving, they can invite managers to contribute to the project anonymously, creating an institutional brainstorming session.

Anonymity is key. The asynchronous process lets individuals freely express contrarian thoughts without fear, reprisal or stigma, so the best ideas can surface. The group can collectively refine, add and remove priorities by upvoting the best solutions in MetabolIQ, said Chehlawi, who has a doctorate of business administration in AI and is a fellow at the Canadian Securities Institute.

“People could see a unique and divergent idea and say, ‘This goes against everything we’ve done, but that’s a fantastic idea.’ And it gets upvoted by the community,” Chehlawi added. “Once it gets a certain amount of votes, it stands a chance to replace the mainstream idea.”

The software helps distill team contributions down to human knowledge about the firm’s needs rather than what’s trending or office politics.

“AI helps us make sure [decisions are] based on our culture, our values, our talent and our vision, and is no longer about playing games inside the organization to push an agenda,” Chehlawi said.

MetabolIQ is already working with three companies in financial services, but won’t say which ones, with the capacity to work with three more in 2026, Chehlawi said. It’s limiting the number of firms it works with to prioritize collaboration depth.

CapIntel offers tax impact analysis

Toronto-based wealthtech CapIntel has launched a tax analysis feature that helps advisors evaluate the tax impact of portfolio changes.

Advisors can add cost basis and purchase date information to find out what the client’s tax implications would be if they moved from a current portfolio to another one. Announced April 23, the feature estimates gains and losses to show potential tax costs, including factors like carry forward losses.

Then, advisors can include the tax information in client proposals to inform their conversation.

Conquest Planning available on U.S. wealth management platform

Winnipeg-based Conquest Planning’s financial planning and analysis software is now integrated into Massachusetts-based wealth management software Advisor360’s platform.

As part of a partnership between the two firms, advisors using Advisor360 no longer need to open Conquest Planning in another window. Trade execution, financial planning and reporting now all happen within Advisor360.