The amount of data available is a challenge we are all facing and no one really makes a good use of it. Although the concept of artificial intelligence (AI) is important, there is still a need to figure out how it fits in our daily lives, how it can be matched to hundreds and thousands of clients, and ultimately, establish if it is relevant, according to panelists at the How to Benefit Wealth Management with Artificial Intelligence panel discussion at the 5th Asa-Pacific Wealth Management & Fintech Conference at the Sofitel Singapore City Hotel in Singapore, on April 18.

The question circling around are how can AI actually be implemented in the finance industry around product creation and research, and if it will completely wipe out the need for bankers, according to Andrew Au, chief executive officer at AG Delta.

"All of the people in the finance industry such as private bankers, traders, [and] managers want to make their job easier as we all get drowned in a data we are not able to process," said Au. "There are a lot of areas where wealth management can benefit from AI - as humans have a fantastic trait - intuition, if we can combine that with AI, the result will be way better than AI by itself."

AI is deeply embedded in our society already but in the finance industry there is a low educational base, according to Dominic Gamble, chief digital officer at Prive Technologies. "Nowadays data is all over the place - you have several systems, log-ins, passwords, CRM systems and honestly AI is just a big scary word for the industry," Gamble said noting that "the goal is not to replace human reasoning but the goal is more of an "implementation of a human role behind the scenes."

In Asia, AI is still in its early stages as there is limited scope in terms of functionality, according to Sandeep Gantori, equity analyst, chief investment officer at UBS Wealth Management. "If you look at the internet companies in China and their implementation of AI, you would assume something similar will be happening in the financial services industry," said Gantori. "AI is indeed the rocket that will take us to the next level, however, we don't have enough data to take us there yet as the data worth analyzing is very limited and not properly stored."

People tend to throw AI around a lot but the real question here is what AI actually does and how do we apply it to the day to day work, according to Seth Huang, co-founder of Squared-S. "AI is basically like a TV remote control - you know how to use it but you don't really need to know how it was made," Huang said, adding that the use of AI in China is actually much wider especially in the payment industry as they are more eager to use new technology and they don't have any other choice but to adopt it.

"Chinese investors tend to be more perceptive to new technology and while for the first generation of wealth the personal relationship with the managers is more important, for the second and third generation - they care about their returns and time efficiency."

According to Huang, the older generation wants to play golf with their managers and have dinners while the new generation doesn't necessarily care about making this type of relationship. "Trust can be placed in AI -  a lot of the services platforms are offering could get replaced by AI depending on what kind of products the clients want to have," said Huang.

However, when you deal with a lot of wealthy clients, personal relationship are of utter importance as clients want to hear directly from the manager although it is true millennials spend less time on such things and rather just go straight to the point, according to Gantori. "The difference is quite clear as over a short period of time clients have become very tech-savvy and that's one of the reason we are putting so much into the Robo adviser," said Gantori.

The problem at the moment is that a larger portion of the population in the region is not tech-savvy at all, according to Gamble. "[Investors] don't want their investment solutions delivered by technology mainly due to the complexity of their fortune," he said. "But as to whether the majority of clients would prefer going through the process of choosing their portfolio with just a click or keep the human touch - the opinions quite differ."