Artificial intelligence is reshaping the financial services landscape faster than any technology we’ve seen in decades—and for financial advisors who work with physicians, this shift presents both a challenge and a tremendous opportunity.
In a recent Engaging Doctors Podcast interview, I spoke with AI expert, strategist, and my own mentor Lisa Larter about how financial advisors can harness AI to stay competitive and relevant in a rapidly transforming marketplace. The conversation was illuminating, energizing, and—frankly—game-changing. Here are the key takeaways that every advisor should understand about the rise of AI and what it means for your practice.
AI Is Not the Future—It’s the Present
Lisa traces her own career from early social-media consulting in 2008 to today’s AI revolution. The comparison is striking. While Facebook took nearly a decade to reach one billion daily active users, ChatGPT hit 700 million daily active users in under three years. The adoption curve is steeper, faster, and more powerful than anything the business world has seen before.
When advisors ask her, “Should I learn AI now?” her answer is unequivocal:
“AI literacy is the most important thing any human being on the planet can learn right now.”
Every industry—from medicine to manufacturing to financial services—is being disrupted. The advisors who adapt early will ride the wave. The advisors who don’t… will be swallowed by it.
Why Advisors Must Understand the New Buyer’s Journey
For years, your online strategy was simple:
Get traffic to your website → Capture leads → Convert those leads through conversation.
That model is collapsing.
Most companies are reporting a 50% decline in website traffic because prospects are no longer performing traditional Google searches. They are using AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude to get fast, tailored answers.
And when they do visit financial advisors’ websites?
Lisa notes that AI-driven visitors are:
“Five times more likely to make a buying decision than organic search traffic.”
This means your digital presence must evolve from static and generic to dynamic, specific, and AI-friendly.
How to Become the Advisor AI Recommends
If prospective physician clients search AI for:
- “financial advisor in Seattle who works with physicians,”
- “help for doctors with debt,” or
- “physician-specific retirement planning”
AI will recommend the advisor whose content, structure, and online footprint match the request best.
So how do you get AI’s attention?
Lisa outlines three essential strategies:
1. Build AI Literacy
You must understand:
- What large language models are
- How they learn
- What they prioritize
- How your prospects are using them
Otherwise, when a doctor comes to you quoting something they learned from ChatGPT, you won’t know how to navigate the conversation.
2. Learn Prompt Engineering—The New Communication Skill
Prompt engineering is simply:
➡️ Knowing how to talk to AI so AI gives you what you need.
Every advisor should know how to:
- Ask AI to rewrite content for compliance
- Generate content outlines
- Improve copy clarity
- Suggest marketing ideas
- Simulate client objections
- Analyze transcripts of sales conversations
You can even ask AI:
“How can I improve this prompt?”
And it will teach you.
3. Create Clear, Specific, AI-Readable Content
AI cannot “see” images.
It cannot interpret vague descriptions.
It cannot recommend you if it doesn’t know what you do.
Your content must:
- State your specialty explicitly (“I help physicians build wealth…”)
- Include location signals (“…in Seattle, Tacoma, and Bellevue…”)
- Incorporate descriptive keywords
- Have written versions of your “trust symbols” (not just logos as images)
This is how AI understands who you are and who you help.
Stop Staring at a Blank Page—Start Using AI as a Creative Partner
Lisa says one of the biggest mistakes advisors make is wasting hours trying to write:
- Newsletters
- Social media posts
- Proposals
- Emails
- SOPs
- Blog posts
AI can help you generate:
- First drafts
- Bullet-point frameworks
- Summaries of meeting notes
- Compliant language
Advisors often fear content creation because of compliance. But AI can actually help you stay within compliance guidelines by design. In fact:
You can ask AI to review content “as if it were a compliance board.”
And it will.
A Powerful Idea for Advisors Who License “The 9 Money Mistakes Doctors Make”
During our conversation, I asked Lisa how advisors could use the intellectual property in The 9 Money Mistakes Doctors Make more effectively.
She suggested:
- Uploading the book into AI
- Asking AI to create compliant social posts
- Generating stories, examples, and case studies
- Creating podcast topics
- Identifying new marketing angles
- Developing multiple versions of lead magnets
Her message:
“It’s endless what you can do once you understand the tool.”
AI Mistakes Advisors Must Avoid
Lisa outlined three common errors:
1. Treating AI like Google
AI is not a search bar. It’s a collaborator. What you put in determines what you get out.
2. Publishing the first draft
AI can hallucinate or make confident mistakes. You must review and refine everything.
3. Not iterating
Most people try one prompt, dislike the answer, and quit.
AI gets dramatically better through iteration—just as a human employee would.
Real Clients Already Seeing Real Revenue
Lisa shared multiple client outcomes:
- A client used AI to refine a proposal and immediately closed a $40,000 deal.
- Another used AI to analyze sales conversations for tone, improvement opportunities, and follow-up clarity.
- Her own business absorbed the workload of a full-time executive assistant after she resigned—because AI increased the team’s operational efficiency.
- A financial advisor client she works with has already begun receiving new leads directly from ChatGPT after optimizing his website for AI search.
AI is not just interesting.
It is demonstrably profitable.
Why Advisors Must Invest in AI Learning Now
Lisa warned that AI will create two groups:
- Early adopters who ride the wave
- Everyone else who gets knocked over by it
The advisors who actively integrate AI into:
- Marketing
- Client acquisition
- Operational workflows
- Client education
- Compliance-friendly content generation
…will have a competitive advantage that grows exponentially over the next several years.
A Final Thought: AI Won’t Replace Advisors—But Advisors Who Use AI Will Replace Advisors Who Don’t
AI will not replace the humanity, judgment, empathy, and trust that advisors bring to the table.
But the advisors who know how to:
- Communicate with AI
- Think with AI
- Create with AI
- Market with AI
- Scale with AI
…will build practices that are more profitable, more efficient, and more resilient than those who continue working the old way.
If you want to learn more about Lisa’s approach, she is offering an upcoming 4-hour AI intensive on December 18th, designed for professionals who want to integrate AI into their 2026 strategy. Click here to register.
Want to watch the episode? Watch here.