London, EC1M 5NP United Kingdom
2023 woke us up to AI.
2024 got us experimenting with AI.
2025 proved what’s possible.
2026 is when wealth managers scale AI with discipline, confidence and measurable ROI.
Across wealth management, boards are united by a singular ambition: to deliver sustainable, substantially higher performance across every dimension of the business. And that must happen within the boundaries of:
- Legal and regulatory expectations
- Ethical and responsible deployment
- Credible stewardship for clients and markets
In this new operating reality, AI is not a technology choice — it is a strategic imperative. A catalyst to unlock productivity, elevate client service, accelerate compliance accuracy, and build future-proof operating models.
Yet many wealth and advice firms remain stuck in pilot mode: high activity — low impact.
That’s why PIMFA and Publicis Sapient have joined forces as partners to create the AI Leaders Incubator Programme, combining PIMFA’s reach across the UK wealth and advice sector with Publicis Sapient’s real-world transformation and AI delivery expertise. Together, we’ve co-designed the curriculum, bringing practitioner insight, live case studies, and frameworks drawn from projects already shaping digital transformation in wealth management.”
What can you expect from the AI Leaders Incubator Programme?
The AI Leaders Incubator is a focused, hands-on learning experience delivered across two highly immersive days. You’ll cut through the hype and tackle the core strategic questions facing boards today: Where does AI genuinely move the needle? How do we scale it responsibly? And how do we deliver measurable, sustainable performance gains within a regulated environment?
This is not a conference.
There are no panels, no passive sessions, no “AI tourism.”
It is a strategic design environment where leaders work alongside AI practitioners and transformation experts to:
- Turn industry-relevant AI use cases into real prototypes
- Build credible business cases with measurable ROI and compliance considerations
- Design governance frameworks that satisfy regulatory expectations
- Develop the confidence, capability, and narrative to lead AI adoption at scale
Through live experimentation, design thinking, guided hacks, and board-ready business case work, you’ll graduate with:
- A validated AI use-case and working prototype
- A board-ready business case & ROI model
- A practical 30-day implementation roadmap
- The confidence and competence to champion responsible AI across your firm
This programme exists to solve the industry’s current friction point: most firms are experimenting with AI — but few are delivering impact at scale. The Incubator gives you the frameworks, tools, and executive confidence to change that — turning intent into traction, and traction into transformational performance.
What challenges will the AI Leaders Incubator support you in overcoming?
- Tightening Margins? Learn to Automate What Matters. Discover how AI can streamline manual processes, reduce inefficiency, and free up capacity for high-value client work — turning cost pressure into productivity gains.
- Rising Client Expectations? Redefine Personalisation at Scale. Build and test AI use-cases that deliver smarter insights, hyper-personalised experiences, and faster decision-making — giving your firm a competitive edge in client trust and satisfaction.
- Regulatory Complexity? Design with Compliance in Mind. Translate complex FCA expectations into AI-ready frameworks that embed accountability, explainability, and governance into every workflow — before the regulator asks.
- Outdated Playbooks? Reimagine How Your Firm Operates. Break free from siloed business models. Collaborate across functions to design AI solutions that connect compliance, operations, and client experience into one intelligent ecosystem.
- Manual Processes? Make AI Your New Colleague. Move beyond “pilot paralysis.” In this incubator, you’ll test, refine, and deploy AI tools that turn repetitive tasks into automated intelligence — built responsibly, for real impact.
- Choosing the Right AI Strategy? Build for Your Reality.
- Learn how to align AI ambition with your firm’s size, data maturity, and risk appetite — selecting scalable use-cases that deliver measurable, defensible results.
- Prove the Business Case. Gain the tools to track, quantify, and communicate AI’s impact — from cost savings to client experience — and translate innovation into tangible returns.
The AI Leaders Incubator does more than teach AI — it accelerates intelligent transformation. Here’s how:
- Elite practitioner mentorship – Work shoulder-to-shoulder with AI strategists who have already delivered real solutions — not theory.
- Build in the arena – Roll up your sleeves in live labs to design, test, and refine AI workflows and decision-support tools tailored to wealth and advice.
- Real frameworks, real outcomes – Adopt proven playbooks to spot high-value use cases, manage risk and accountability under UK regulation, and measure commercial ROI from day one.
- A peer group that pushes you further – Join an action-oriented cohort of COOs, CTOs, transformation leads, and compliance heads shaping the next decade of wealth management.
- Demo Day — with purpose – Pitch your prototype or live AI use-case to peers, partners, and stakeholders — secure adoption pathways, budget confidence, and executive buy-in.
Who’s the AI Leaders Incubator for?
You’re a senior leader — not a coder. No background in IT or data science required. You’re the decision-maker in your firm, shaping digital strategy, driving innovation, and making the big calls on investment, risk, and transformation. You’re ready to turn data and AI into your next competitive advantage. The AI Leaders Incubator is built for senior executives who want to move beyond experimentation and make AI real — embedding it into operations, culture, and strategy to deliver measurable business results.
Enrolment
Enrolment is now open for cohort one of the AI Leaders Incubator. Places are limited and are offered on a first-come, first-served basis.
Still have questions?
Please contact:
Philip Allen, Head of Learning
learning@pimfa.co.uk
Session 1: Understanding AI - From Buzzword to Business Value
Kick off your Incubator journey by cutting through the noise. In this opening session, you’ll unpack what AI really means for your firm from AI Assistants, Advisors to Agents; the AI Supply Chain and AI and why AI is set to transform productivity and change the distribution of wealth and power. Explore how leading wealth and advice firms are already using it to drive impact. Together with transformation experts and AI practitioners, we’ll surface the opportunities, the risks, and the real-world blockers holding firms back, setting the stage for confident, purpose-driven implementation in the sessions ahead.
Session objectives:
- Deepen your understanding of AI — what it is, what it isn’t, and how it can create tangible value for your firm.
- Learn how to identify the right problem to solve with AI and build a compelling, evidence-based business case for implementation.
- How to prepare leadership, governance, and oversight structures for AI-enabled operations
By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:
- Explain the basic AI concepts and what they mean in practical business terms and how to distinguish real capability from hype.
- Recognise how leading firms are applying AI across wealth and advice to drive efficiency, innovation, and growth.
- Identify key opportunities and risks of AI adoption, including governance, ethics, and ROI considerations.
- Assess your firm’s current AI maturity and blockers, setting the foundation for confident, purpose-driven experimentation in future sessions.
- Clarify where AI fits in your strategy – and how to turn potential into performance.
Post-session task: Your post-session task is to take a closer look at how AI is already showing up — or could soon show up — across your firm. Using the template provided, spend time with the support of your mentor, mapping current or emerging AI and automation use cases under Operations, Client Experience, Risk & Compliance, and Growth. For each area, identify one opportunity and one blocker to reveal your firm’s current AI baseline. This exercise lays the groundwork for Session 2: Working with AI, where you’ll turn these insights into practical actions that drive measurable impact.
Session 2: Working with AI — From Curiosity to Capability
You’ve explored what AI is, now it’s time to figure out what it can do for you. In this session, we’ll help you move from talking about AI to working with it, identifying strategic use cases, exploring organisational blockers, and practising collaborating confidently with AI tools.
Session objectives:
- Reframe how leaders think about AI — shifting from awareness to confident application.
- Explore strategic AI use cases that create measurable business value.
- Understand the cultural and organisational enablers that make AI adoption succeed.
- Introduce practical techniques for collaborating effectively with AI tools.
By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:
- Identify and evaluate AI use cases that align with your firm’s goals and risk appetite.
- Recognise and address the key blockers to successful AI implementation.
- Develop a plan to foster data literacy and innovation across your teams.
- Apply principles of prompt engineering and human–AI collaboration to everyday work.
Post-session task: Turn insight into action. You’ll begin by assessing your current data culture — how confident are your teams in using data, and which habits help or hinder smarter decision-making? Then, you’ll define one quick win you can deliver within 30 days to strengthen data literacy or AI awareness in your area — maybe a “Prompt of the Week,” a team lunch-and-learn, or a short AI sandbox session. Finally, you’ll build momentum: with guidance from your trainers, you’ll decide who to involve, what support you’ll need, and how to keep your initiative moving. You’ll capture your idea in one slide or a short paragraph to share at the start of Session 3: Exploring Tools
Session 3: Exploring AI tools
You’ll get hands-on with the AI tools transforming productivity across the advice sector. In this fast-paced, mentor-led session, you’ll experiment, in real time, with tools like Chat GPT, KIRO, Google LM and Perplexity in a — learning how to automate, analyse, and innovate without risk. You’ll uncover common pitfalls, pick up insider hacks from industry mentors, and leave ready to use AI with purpose, not curiosity — turning everyday workflows into engines of efficiency and insight.
Session objectives:
- Recognise each AI tool’s potential to drive efficiency, insight, and innovation within your firm.
- Build your digital confidence through hands-on experimentation in a safe space.
- Connect your AI strategy to real impact — turning everyday tools into engines of transformation.
- Experiment safely with dummy data to uncover AI’s real limits and possibilities.
- Build the technical comfort and tool fluency needed before moving into ideation, hackathon, and business-case design.
By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:
- Gain hands-on familiarity with key AI tools used across the Incubator.
- Understand how to use Chat GPT, KIRO, Google LM and Perplexity to automate, analyse, and accelerate everyday workflows.
- Experience AI in action — building comfort and confidence through safe, live experimentation.
- Identify where each tool can unlock efficiency, insight, or creativity inside their firm.
- Recognise common pitfalls and limitations when deploying AI tools in real business settings.
- Apply mentor-led best practices for integrating AI tools into existing systems and teams.
Post-session task: Your post-session task is a challenge to “find your first automation”, turning what you’ve learnt into action by identifying one real workflow in your firm that could be simplified or enhanced using the tools explored today. You’ll start by spotting a repetitive or manual process in your daily work, such as data entry, reporting, content creation, or onboarding, and then use Chat GPT, KIRO, Google LM and Perplexity to map how you could automate or accelerate part of that process. You’ll capture your idea in a one-slide summary or a short one-minute video showing the problem, the tool you tested, and the impact achieved — whether that’s time saved, accuracy improved, or insights gained. You’ll share your summary at the next session for group feedback and mentor insights. By completing this task, you’ll turn tool familiarity into tangible business value — your first step toward designing a firm-ready AI use case!
Session 4: Ideation
Innovation doesn’t happen by accident; it happens when bold thinkers collide with the right tools. This session is where strategy meets imagination. You’ll turn real business challenges into AI-powered opportunities that move the needle. We shift the mindset from “What can AI do?” to “If we could… then what?” This is the moment you reframe constraints, challenge assumptions, and explore what becomes possible when AI becomes an enabler rather than an experiment.
You’ll learn to design high-value concepts that don’t just automate tasks, but re-engineer workflows, elevate client experience, strengthen oversight, and redefine efficiency, risk control, and commercial performance.
Session objectives:
- Flip your mindset from AI as a tool to AI as an
- Use Design + AI frameworks to drive creative problem-solving that unlocks new efficiencies, insights, and client value.
- Generate high-impact ideas rooted in real business challenges to create measurable value and competitive advantage.
- Build your confidence to test, fail fast, and refine with your mentors moving ideas from concept to impact faster.
- Prepare one viable AI concept to take into the Hackathon.
By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:
- Reframe business challenges through the lens of AI, spotting opportunities for transformation, not just automation.
- Apply System Thinking + AI frameworks to generate bold, practical solutions with real business impact.
- Collaborate effectively in teams to ideate, prioritise, and stress-test ideas using tools like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Miro.
- Translate creative concepts into actionable use cases ready to refine and prototype in the upcoming Hackathon
Post session task: Your challenge is to turn your strongest idea, individual or team, into a focused concept ready for prototyping and pitching at the upcoming Hackathon. You’ll start by using the AI Ideation Canvas to select your winning idea, the one with the clearest business impact or client value, and refine it into a sharper, more actionable concept. Then, you’ll stress-test your idea with AI using tools like Gemini, ChatGPT, or Perplexity to challenge assumptions, validate feasibility, and expand possibilities. Finally, you’ll package your concept into a one-slide summary or a 60-second video outlining the problem you’re solving, the AI capability or data source required, who benefits and how, and how success will be measured, whether through efficiency, ROI, or client outcomes. By completing this task, you’ll move from creative ideation to structured innovation, arriving at Session 5 with a validated, prototype-ready concept that bridges strategy and measurable impact.
Session 5: Hackathon: From Idea to Impact
Turn your big ideas into working prototypes and business cases that prove real value, manage risk, and deliver ROI for your firm. This is where talk ends and traction begins. You’ve explored tools, reframed problems, and ideated bold solutions — now it’s time to build, test, and show what your concept can actually do. In this hands-on Hackathon, you’ll prototype and pressure-test AI-enabled business concepts, tackle risk head-on, and craft a credible business case ready for your boardroom.
Session objectives:
- Transform your AI concept from paper to prototype using no-code tools and real-world data scenarios.
- Pressure-test your thinking – validate assumptions, address risk, and stress-test feasibility in a safe, mentor-led environment.
- Quantify value and impact – calculate measurable ROI, time savings, and performance improvements from your AI use case.
- Craft a straight forward, credible narrative linking AI innovation to your firm’s strategic, operational, and compliance goals.
By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:
- Design and demonstrate a prototype that showcases how AI can solve a real business challenge within the firm.
- Assess and mitigate key governance, ethics, and data risks when deploying AI solutions.
- Articulate a clear ROI story that connects innovation to measurable outcomes and client or operational value.
- Present a draft business case suitable for internal approval, sponsorship, or pilot deployment.
Post session task: Refine and finalise your prototype and complete your draft business case from the Hackathon, transforming it into a concise, confident five-minute presentation ready for Session 6: Playback. You’ll start by tightening your prototype based on mentor feedback, ensuring your solution is presented with clarity, precision, and impact. You’ll make quick adjustments that enhance functionality, flow, or compliance. You’ll then strengthen your business case by validating key metrics, such as ROI, time saved, or efficiency gained and clarifying how your proposal aligns with governance, ethics, and regulatory expectations. Finally, you’ll rehearse your Playback pitch as a team, refining both your story and delivery. By completing this task, you’ll walk into Session 6 with a refined prototype, a board-ready business case, and a polished, confident pitch that communicates value, responsibility, and ROI.
Session 6: Playback & Championing AI in Your Firm
The final session of the Incubator brings everything together. This is your moment to showcase what you’ve built, share what you’ve learned, and step forward as an AI champion within your firm. You’ll present your five-minute business case and prototype to peers and mentors, receiving feedback that sharpens both your concept and your confidence. Together, we’ll reflect on how to translate these ideas into real implementation, exploring how to embed AI into strategy, culture, and everyday decision-making.
You’ll also design your personal AI Champion Roadmap, outlining the next 30 days of action to sustain momentum, win internal support, and scale impact responsibly.
Session objectives:
- Present your AI business case with clarity and confidence, showcasing measurable impact, responsible design, and strategic alignment to recognised AI authorities and mentors.
- Apply targeted mentor feedback to strengthen your prototype and refine your business case for real-world deployment.
- Explore how to champion AI adoption inside your firm, aligning innovation with culture, governance, and client outcomes.
- Commit to an actionable next step, defining a clear 30-day roadmap to take your concept from pitch to practice.
By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:
- Deliver a concise, board-ready AI business case that connects innovation to commercial and compliance value.
- Incorporate mentor feedback to finalise your business case and identify enablers for implementation.
- Develop an action roadmap outlining how AI can be integrated into your business strategy and culture.
- Articulate a personal commitment to advancing responsible AI adoption within your firm.
Post session task: Your final post-session task is to turn everything you’ve learned in the Incubator into action through your AI Champion Roadmap. You’ll define one tangible goal to achieve in the next 30 days, whether it’s launching a pilot, refining a prototype, updating a policy, or running a team training session. You’ll map out key milestones, identify the stakeholders you’ll need to engage, and outline how you’ll measure success.
By completing this task, you’ll move from learning to leading, stepping into your role as an AI change-maker with a clear plan to embed responsible, measurable AI adoption within your firm.