Happy Thursday,

AI isn’t slowing down—and neither should we. This newsletter is your shortcut to practical ideas and smarter strategies to grow, lead, and adapt as tech reshapes our industry.

To take it one step further, I’ve launched a new YouTube series. Each month, I’m sharing quick, tactical videos showing how advisors can use tools like ChatGPT to save time, think better, and scale more efficiently—starting with the work you're already doing.

Watch my latest episode here

The AI Edge

Helping advisors scale from 1 person to many people.

AI Application:

NotebookLM

I’ve done one demo of NotebookLM in the past, but so much has been added that I decided to show different features and a different use case.

Overview:

NotebookLM is Google's research and analysis workspace that can now function as an internal content production studio. Think of it as having a senior analyst, a video producer, and a presentation designer all working simultaneously on the same project. The tool allows for access to Google Gemini’s Deep Research. This creates a powerful combination that enables users to add multiple sources and a detailed research report to a Notebook all at once and without leaving the platform. This creates deeper value and more robust insights to be leveraged within the workspace. What makes this different from other AI tools is the integration: it's not just summarizing information, it's creating multiple formats of deliverable content from a single research foundation. The latest update includes Google's Gemini 3 model, which brings visual generation capabilities that turn dry financial analysis into engaging multimedia presentations. It's the difference between spending a day creating materials and spending ten minutes guiding an AI through the same process.

How to apply NotebookLM to the business today:

• Generate equity research for internal investment committee meetings - Feed the AI a stock ticker and watch it compile 28+ sources into a comprehensive analysis report, complete with methodology you can verify. No more assigning junior analysts to spend two days pulling together background materials.

• Transform existing firm research into client communication materials - Take your investment thesis documents and convert them into simplified slide decks that strip away the jargon while keeping the substance. The AI specifically adjusts for different audience sophistication levels.

• Create video explainers for portfolio decisions - Instead of writing the same email fifteen times explaining why you're overweight tech, generate a 7-minute video overview that walks through your reasoning with visual support. Send one link to all interested clients.

• Build educational content libraries for common client questions - Research topics like "How do interest rates affect bond values?" once, then generate multiple content formats (brief doc, detailed report, slide deck, video) from that single research session. Reuse across client meetings and prospect conversations.

• Prepare meeting materials for complex client situations - When you need to discuss concentrated stock positions, estate planning implications, or market volatility with clients, have the AI research current conditions and create talking-point presentations that you can customize.

Advanced:

• Develop proprietary investment perspectives at scale - Create deep research reports on emerging sectors or market themes, then automatically generate different versions for different client segments: ultra-high-net-worth gets sophisticated analysis, newer clients get foundational education.

• Build cross-functional training materials for your team - When launching new service offerings or onboarding advisors, research best practices and industry standards, then generate video training modules and slide presentations that standardize your firm's approach across all advisors.

• Create multi-format RFP responses - Research a prospective client's industry, competitive landscape, and specific challenges, then generate customized presentation decks and video overviews that demonstrate your understanding before the first meeting.

• Establish a research-backed content marketing engine - Pick twelve topics your ideal clients care about, run deep research on each, then generate multiple content pieces (LinkedIn articles, video series, downloadable guides) from each research foundation. Suddenly you have a year's worth of authority-building content.

• Design client portal resources that update automatically - Create notebooks for major portfolio holdings where the AI continuously synthesizes new research and updates video explainers and slide decks as company situations evolve. Your client portal becomes a living resource rather than static PDFs.

What could this application mean for the future of our business?

We're watching the commoditization of something that used to create real separation between firms: the ability to produce professional-grade research and client communications. Five years ago, having a dedicated research team or marketing department was a legitimate competitive moat. Today, a solo advisor can generate the same caliber of materials that previously required a full support staff.

The implications aren't subtle. Firms that built their value proposition around "we have more resources" will find that advantage evaporating quickly. The new differentiation becomes speed of implementation and quality of advisor-client relationships. When everyone can create impressive slide decks and research videos, the firms that win will be those whose advisors spend more time actually talking to clients rather than preparing to talk to clients.

This also changes what we should be hiring for. The skill of synthesizing research into clear client communication becomes less valuable when AI can do it in minutes. Instead, we need advisors who excel at asking the right questions, reading client situations accurately, and building trust through authentic relationships. The production work is becoming automated; the human insight work is becoming everything.

See NotebookLM in action:

Watch the moment when a seven-minute professionally produced video appears—complete with voiceover and custom graphics—from research that was just completed minutes earlier. You'll see the AI build a research plan, gather nearly 30 sources, generate an analysis report, create a 15-slide deck, and produce a video explainer that sounds like something your marketing team spent a week on. The most striking part isn't any single capability—it's watching how the tool thinks through its research approach before diving in, showing you the shift from instant answers to thoughtful analysis. This is where AI stops being a faster search engine and starts becoming a legitimate research partner that shows its work.

-Matt