Iress bets on AI as business transformation moves forward

Iress is shifting its focus from business simplification to executing an ambitious artificial intelligence (AI)-driven product strategy that will help financial advisers slash work processes by nearly 40%.

Speaking following the release of Iress' first-half results, chief executive Andrew Russell said the company has embarked on the third phase of its transformation agenda after completing the simplification phase, which involved divesting non-core businesses to focus on trading and wealth.

"We now have ambitions to be a world-class software technology business," he told Financial Standard.

"The third stage is turning our minds to evolving our product sets across both business lines. AI and agentic platforms are such a pivotal development, and they'll be a big part of that evolution."

The APAC wealth unit, which provides financial advice software and related tools to the advice and superannuation industries in Australia, as well as the broader APAC region, reported a 4% rise in revenue to $68.2 million.

Updating on Iress' partnership with Thoughtworks and its plans for Xplan, Russell said work is focused on making the platform faster and improving overall performance.

"We've got some tactical improvements coming that advisers will notice, particularly around the look and feel and the modernisation of the client portal. We're also making technical improvements to workflows and bringing AI into those processes to drive productivity gains across the advice workflow," he said.

Russell said advisers' increasing workloads are driving Xplan's process and technology uplift.

"We're trying to improve adviser productivity. If providing advice, including meeting with a client, completing the fact-find and delivering advice, currently takes eight hours, we're going to use technology to try to reduce that to five hours. That's a material productivity improvement," he said.

The group appointed a new UK-based chief technology officer in March, who is strengthening Xplan's modernisation program, with particular emphasis on improving user experience while preserving the depth and flexibility required for complex advice.

The global trading and market data (GTMD) unit, which generated half of total revenue, reported a top line of $125.3 million, which was stable year-on-year.

The UK wealth and sourcing business saw a 7% year-on-year decline in revenue to $53.5 million.

Rather than rushing AI products to market, Russell said Iress is taking a measured approach focused on reliability, compliance and integration within existing workflows.

Russell is cognisant of the abundance of AI tools in the marketplace and the fact that many technology-forward firms are experimenting with them.

"What we're hearing from customers is that they'd love to see the Iress platform, which is rock-solid from a compliance, functionality and quality perspective, provide those capabilities directly across their workflows," he said.

"Our view is we don't need to be first; we just need to be better."