Advisors Adopt AI Fast, but Still Aren’t Getting Their Time Back, Says 2026 Morningstar Investor Perspectives Advisor Study

The study draws on 501 online responses from financial advisory professionals across the United States.

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10/05/2026 - 07:30 AM

Administrative demands, harder-to-explain investments, and growing client expectations continue to compete for advisors’ time despite rapid AI adoption.

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investing insights, today released its annual Morningstar Investors Perspectives Advisor study, the third installment in the 2026 Morningstar Investor Perspectives series. Following research on retail investors and asset owners, the study provides new insight into how advisors are responding to AI adoption, rising client expectations, and market uncertainty. The findings reveal a growing paradox: advisors are embracing AI at pace, but many still feel they lack sufficient time to focus on clients.

“AI is helping advisors run faster, but the treadmill is speeding up too,” said Joe Agostinelli, senior director of market research at Morningstar. “More documentation, faster service expectations, and more client questions mean AI is absorbing complexity rather than simply freeing up time. Across this year’s Morningstar Investor Perspectives research, we keep seeing the same tension: investors have more information and more options, but not necessarily more confidence. Advisors are increasingly the people who sort signal from noise and help clients keep moving toward their goals.”

The share of surveyed advisors reporting no AI use fell from 33% in 2025 to 20% in 2026, while nearly half (48%) said the technology has significantly or moderately improved their day-to-day efficiency. Even so, more than half (56%) named too much administrative or operational work as a top barrier to delivering the service they want to provide.

The gap is easy to see: Advisors currently devote 53% of their workweek on client-focused work but would ideally spend 63%, a difference of about four hours in a 40-hour workweek. Nearly two-thirds (62%) want more client time, with those advisors looking for a 19% increase on average. Advisors see the clearest benefit in practical work, with 57% saying AI could improve the efficiency of client communications, such as summarizing notes and drafting follow-ups. Only 18% rated AI tools as highly reliable for investment recommendations or portfolio decisions. The message is not that AI replaces judgment, but that AI can give advisors more room to use it.

Private markets show how quickly complexity can fill the space

Private investments are one of the clearest examples of opportunity arriving with more work attached. Forty percent of advisors now offer private investments, up from 35% in 2025, and another 5% plan to offer them. At the same time, fees and fee transparency were the most-cited private-market due-diligence challenge at 46%, followed by limited liquidity at 41% and limited transparency into underlying holdings at 35%.

Confidence also softened. Only 25% of advisors who offer private investments said they were highly satisfied with manager transparency and reporting, down from 38% in 2025. Similarly, 61% noted they were highly comfortable explaining the private investments they offer, down from 68%. Demand does not appear to be going away. Among advisors who offer private investments, 46% expect client allocations to increase over the next 12 months, while 50% expect allocations to stay about the same.

Advisors want partners who reduce friction

The same pressure shapes what advisors want from asset managers. While investment performance remains the most frequently cited relationship value, its share fell 6 percentage points to 45% in 2026. Advisors also pointed to the day-to-day behaviors that make a partner easier to work with: an accessible wholesaler or support team at 37%, consistent follow-through at 29%, clear communication at 27%, and an understanding of the practice’s needs and structure at 26%.

The focus groups made the difference plain: Advisors value partners who know their holdings, flag relevant risks, offer credible pushback, and respond when markets move. Generic pitches, products that are not available on the advisor platform, and frequent wholesaler turnover create more work.

About the Morningstar Investor Perspectives Series

The 2026 Morningstar Investor Perspectives series connects research across retail investors, asset owners, asset managers, and financial advisors. Looking at those audiences together gives Morningstar a wider view of how information, technology, investment choice, and market uncertainty can shape decisions across the investing ecosystem. The studies draw on Morningstar’s breadth of data and research to help show where the experiences of investors and the professionals who serve them line up, and where important gaps remain.

Methodology: The 2026 Morningstar Investor Perspectives Advisors study is based on 501 online responses collected across the United States from July 21 through Aug. 16, 2026. The respondent profile included financial advisors, financial planners, investment advisors, wealth managers, wealth advisors, private wealth advisors, and retirement advisors across regional and independent broker-dealers, RIA firms, insurance broker-dealers or independent agencies, wirehouses, and financial institutions.

About Morningstar, Inc.

Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment insights in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The Company offers an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers and owners, retirement plan providers and sponsors, institutional investors in the debt and private capital markets, and alliances and redistributors. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, debt securities, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with approximately $375 billion in AUMA as of June 30, 2026. The Company operates through wholly-owned subsidiaries in 32 countries. For more information, visit www.morningstar.com/company. Follow Morningstar on X @MorningstarInc.

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