Morgan Stanley Opens Wealth Management to AI

Morgan Stanley is opening its trillion-dollar wealth management platforms, ShareWorks and Equity Edge, to external AI agents used by corporate clients. This initiative allows autonomous AI tools to directly access data and insights, bypassing traditional human-operated software interfaces. Mark Mitchell, Chief Product Officer at Morgan Stanley at Work, confirmed that limited access has already been granted to a few clients, with a full rollout to 3,400 administration clients planned for next year. This marks one of the first instances of a major US bank enabling external AI tools to interact with its core systems. Morgan Stanley believes this will scale services like customer support and stock-plan administration without significantly increasing headcount. The bank has been experimenting with AI since partnering with OpenAI in 2022, developing internal tools like the AI @ Morgan Stanley Assistant and Debrief. This strategic shift is supported by the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open-source standard for AI model connectivity. While rivals like JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs use AI internally, Morgan Stanley's external integration sets it apart, aiming to leverage proprietary data and business logic as the primary competitive advantage in an evolving software landscape.