Naureen Hassan, Chief Digital Officer for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, uses augmented intelligence to balance automation with the talent of the firm’s professional advisers. Specifically, her expertise is enhancing the human component without replacing it.
Hassan’s current position spans multiple specialities, from managing social media to integrating AI into Morgan Stanley’s work. To this end, she leverages the latest available technologies to improve the clients’ experience and make the advisors’ work more effective by, as she explains, “crunching mountains of structured data and turning it into insights.”
Already, Hassan has introduced new technologies and artificial intelligence that helps Morgan Stanley employees work more quickly, efficiently, and effectively.
Naureen Hassan Augments Human Intelligence
Hassan served as keynote speaker at the 2018 US Money 20/20 conference, delivering a talk titled “AI in Wealth Management: Revolution or Evolution?” Then she answered her own question by explaining the power of augmented intelligence “artificial intelligence plus people.”
Hassan’s approach allows computers to do the number crunching. But it leaves analyzing how complex data functions within the nuances of real life to human professionals. As Hassan explained in her keynote, technology is simply unable to process disorganized data and personalized notes. Instead, human intelligence must not only fine-tune the system, but adjust to each unique situation that a client may present.
“As a customer’s needs become more complex, they want a person,” Hassan explains. “But that person has a huge opportunity to power technology behind them, to make them more efficient and to make their day easier.”
Past Successes Informing Current Work
Hassan is Morgan Stanley’s first Chief Digital Officer. She boils her role down to “[using] technology and [making] processes easier for both advisers and clients.” Hassan, though, is no stranger to integrating technology into the financial sector.
In her previous role as Executive Vice President at Charles Schwab, Hassan developed a now highly popular “robo advisor”. This technology is the wealth management bot for Schwab’s Intelligent Portfolios project. Additionally, she introduced e-authentication that allowed Schwab clients to use fingerprint recognition technology available on many smartphones to help prevent authentication fraud and feel even more safe accessing their data.
These developments prepared Hassan to take on her new role as CDO at Morgan Stanley. There, she integrates technology into financial decisions without displacing the human element.
Technology in Naureen Hassan’s Life
However, Hassan does not view technology as just a part of her work. “I’m a mother of two small children, and I outsource everything I can – Instacart for groceries, Amazon for everything from toys to toilet paper, Stitch Fix for casual clothes, Houzz for design ideas for my house remodel,” she notes.
Hassan’s approach leaves more time for the human interactions and analyses that matter. On one hand, that might mean time spent with her children. Or, it might mean allowing a world-class investment firm deliver the best possible services to its clients.
“We need a world where professionals are supercharged, not supplanted by technology,” says Hassan.
